Friday, January 25, 2008

RAGI


Ragi is common name for the starter which is used in the preparation of Indonesion fermented foods. There are two kinds of ragi can be distinguished in Indonesia.
The first, “ragi tempe”. In many villages this starter is known as “laru” or laru tempe” or “biang tempe” and can be used for the manufacture of any kind of the tempe (soybeans, tofu wastes, edible legumes). The preparation of the starter : cooked cotyledons of soybeans are wrapped as thin layer in leaves of Hibiscus similis for 24 – 48 hours. The heavily sporulating bean mass is sun dried and pounded in to powder. The mould isolated are Rhyzopus oryzae, Rhyzopus arrhizus and Rhyzopus oligosporus is the real tempe mould. All these starters contains microorganisms wich can produce enzyme necessarry to de grade the substrate to produce that desired flavour and aroma of the fermented products. Ragi tempe contains coulds wich produce protease, lipases and amylases.
The second, “Ragi tape”. This starter is similar to Chinese peh-chu wich is used for the fermentation of cassava tubers or glutinous rice. Ragi tape is contains Amylomyces rouxii, Rhyzopus oryzae and Saccharomyces fibuligera. Ragi tape contain amylolytic moulds. ( Indonesian Food and Nutrition Progress ).

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) the new alternative sweetener.



FOS wich are considered biological benefits, have been developed recently to be used as functional factors in health-food. FOS show low cariogenicity, nondigestibility, proliferation of bifidobacteria in human intestinal tract and dietary fiberlike action. FOS posses these unique health beneficial effects and can be found wide applications in food and pharmaceutical industries. FOS are natural bifidobacteria enhancers. These natural food ingredients can maintain microbial balance in intestinal tract and be called functional factors or nutraceauticals. Prospect of FOS can be applied on variety of foods as a sweetener in hard candy, dessert, topping and spread, soft cream, bread, drinks, dairy products, sweeten milk, feeds and pharmaceutical industry. Addition of FOS in food not only provides biological functionality but also improves the final products appearance and physical properties.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

THE HEALTH AND SAFETY ASPECS OF SUGAR


The image for sugar was the publication of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report on the health and safety aspecs of sugar. In essence, the report gives sugar a clean bill of health, while acknowledging that it does contribute to tooth decay. Encouragingly, consumers seem to be hearing and responding to the good news about sugar. Heartened by the good news of the FDA report, the sugar industry is about to embark on television advertising campaign that will tell the world that sugar is truly the gold standard of sweeteners. The sugar industry provide sweetnes and good taste to consumers, and functionality, versatility, stability and purity to food manufacturers. The product had universal acceptability.