VALUE ADDITION AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT OF FURIKAKE RICE SEASONING POWDER FROM THE LOCAL SILKWORM PUPAE SPECIES OF SURIN PROVINCE

Abstract

The current research was aimed to develop products made from local silkworm pupae, evaluate their nutritional value, assess product changes, and transfer knowledge to the community. Furikake rice seasoning powder was developed with fish-to-silkworm pupae ratios as follows: Formula 1 (100:0), Formula 2 (50:50), Formula 3 (0:100), and Formula 4 (0:150). Sensory testing was conducted using a  9-point hedonic scale. The experiment was carried out employing Randomized Complete Block Design namely, RCBD with 20 trained testers and 50 participants from the local area. The research results showed that the trained assessors preferred rice seasoning powder (Furikake) from silkworm pupae in the aspect of overall preference and Formula 4 was highly accepted with the value of mean score of 8.10 ± 0.73.              In terms of nutritional value per 100 grams, the findings indicated the following contents: total energy, moisture, protein, total fat, carbohydrates, dietary fiber, ash and calcium which were 567.99 kcal, 1.01%, 35.06%, 39.83%, 17.32%, 7.11%, 6.79% and 310.40 mg, respectively. After 3 months of storage, the results were found as follows: total plate count (TPC), yeast and mold (Y&M), and E. coli were 3,000 CFU/g, less than 10 CFU/g, and less than 3 CFU/g, respectively. All of which were within acceptable standards. Due to the analysis of physical and chemical properties, the water activity (aw) was measured at 0.35, and the color values for brightness (L*), redness (a*), and yellowness (b*) were 47.35, 4.40, and 22.98, respectively. The improvement of the product in terms of color to Tom Yum flavor was resulted in increasing the redness (a*) value and the yellowness (b*) value at 13.36 and 29.10, respectively. Silkworm pupae products have been an interestingly new option of protein source.