Development of Noodle Product Protein Fortification with Watermeal (Wolffia arrhiza (L.) Wimm.)

Abstract

Watermeal is an alternative food source from local plants with high nutritional value. The objective of this research is to develop protein-fortified noodle products from watermeal to increase the nutritional value of carbohydrate foods. This study consisted of 7 experiments, respectively, as follows: experiment 1) control sample 2) fortified with fresh watermeal 5% of total starch weight 3) fortified with fresh watermeal 10% of total starch weight
4) fortified with fresh watermeal 15% of total starch weight 5) fortified with dried watermeal 5% of total starch weight 6) fortified with dried watermeal 10% of total starch weight 7) fortified with dried watermeal 15%t of the total starch weight. The results of the study found that noodle products supplement with fresh and dehydrated watermeal resulted in a statistically significant difference in the color values L* a* and b* at the 95% confidence level. There were no significant difference of water activity content between the control sample and the noodles fortified with fresh watermeal and dried watermeal at the 95% confidence level. The amount of water activity in all samples were 0.60 to 0.62. Noodles supplemented with fresh and dried watermeal have a higher protein content than the control. The control sample has 3.90% protein. Fresh watermeal-fortified noodles have 4.06-
4.14% protein. Dried watermeal-fortified noodles have 4.47-4.98% protein. The result shows that 15% fresh watermeal-fortified noodles had a texture value that was not significantly different from the control sample but had a protein content that was significantly higher than the control. Noodles supplemented with 15% dried watermeal had the following nutrition values given per 100 grams of sample: energy 182.49 kcal, 4.38 grams of protein, 26.93 grams of carbohydrates, 7.25 grams of fat, 2.29 grams of fiber and 0.81 grams of ash, respectively. Therefore, fortified with watermeal in noodles can increase the nutritional value of the product. It is a healthy food that prevents protein energy malnutrition of various ages and promotes food security in the community