Production Process and Its Influence on the Quality of Palm Sugar from Various Regions in South Sulawesi Surya Muh. Furqan Rayu (a), Muhammad Iman Akbar (a), Aulia Sri Rahma (a), Syahidah (a)*
Forestry Faculty, Universitas Hasanuddin, Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan Km.10 Tamalanrea, Makassar, Indonesia, 90245
Abstract
Palm sugar is one of the NTFPs that can be develoved as a business unit. Quality of palm sugar is one of the important factors that determine the success of palm sugar business. The aim of this research are to analyze palm sugar production process and its effect on the quality of palm sugar from various regions in South Sulawesi such as Bone, Maros, Sidrap and Sinjai Regency. In this study, production process of palm sugar applied by farmers in these regencies were analyzes according to several factors namely the preparation of the tapping, the handling of the palm sap after tapping, cooking and packaging processes of the product carried out by the farmers. Furthermore, the palm sugar production then analyze their quality according to Indonesian National Standard No. 01-3743-1995 about palm sugar. The results show that all the palm sugar production from all regencies mostly meet the standard, except palm sugar products from Sinjai Regency do not meet the standard due to exceeding the maximum value of lead (Pb) 2.0, namely 7.25. The sucrose content of palm sugar ranged from 81-82%, moisture content ranged from 7.89-9.84%, parts that is insoluble water ranged from 0.14-0.26%, ash content ranged from 1.00-1.80%, lead (Pb) ranged from <0.06-7.25 mg/kg, arsenic all have value <0,005 mg/kg, Zinc (Zn) value range from 0.20-2,43 mg/kg, reduction sugar ranged from 2.06-6.33, and the amount of sugar as saccharose ranged from 73.75-82,17%.
Keywords: Palm sugar, NTFPs, Indonesian National Standard, Reduction Sugar, Saccharosaract
Topic: Food processing, safety and diversification
