Abstract:
Talas Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) has been broadly planted in several parts of Indonesia for along time. Taro has potential to be developed in its utilities.
The processing of taro as foods has been very simple. The processing of taro into flour can increase the variation of foods made from taro and increase the use of taro in the production of foods.
The problem in the processing of taro flour is the brown colour which could be caused by the browning reaction. One of preventing that problem is to apply SO2,
sulfit salt and some certain acids such as citric acid and ascorbic acid.
The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of several soaking solutions in the quality of various taro flours.
The research was done in two steps, the preliminary research and the main research. The treatments in the main research are the variety of talas and the soaking solutions. The variety of talas are talas bentul (A1), talas ketan (A2) talas lampung (A3). The soaking solutions are 0,1% NaHSO3 solution (B1), 0,1% NaHSO3 solution with 0,05% citric acid (B2), 0,1% NaHSO3 solution with 0,1% ascorbic acid (B3) and the soaking in water (B4).
The experimental design used is the complete of random design, two factors, with two replications. The analysis that was done on the taro flour includes: rendemen, water contents, ash contents, total acid, SO₂ as the residue of 2 sulfitation, the degree of whiteness, the preference test of taro flour and substituted cookies.
The result showed that the varieties of taro affect the ash contents, total acid and SO2 as the residue of sulfitation. The soaking solutions affect the ash contents, total acid, SO2 as the residue of sulfitation, the degree of whiteness and the consumer acceptance to the colour of taro flour. The interaction of both treatments just gave significantly sulfitation. to the SO2 as residue of
The best quality of taro flour was produced from the soaking in 0,1% NaHSO3 solution with 0,05% citric acid. It can be accepted by the consumer.
