People know pineapple as a well-known fruit, and vendors often sell it abundantly in traditional markets, especially during harvest season. Consumers love this fruit not only because of its delicious taste but also because of its high vitamin and calorie content, which is good for health. People often consume pineapple as fresh fruit as well as processed food and beverages.
The productivity of pineapple does not necessarily yield good price. At harvest season, the market place and producing centers incur lots of waste and the price drops very low.
To overcome this problem, researchers have developed a technology to process fresh pineapple into nata de piña. By adding Acetobacter xylinum, the sugar component in pineapple juice changes into a substance called nata de piña.
Processing of Nata De Piña
Materials for Making Nata de Piña
Pineapple juice, 10 liters
Diammonium phosphate (DAP), 30 g
Sugar, 4.8 kg
Glacial acetic acid, 0.2 liters
Acetobacter xylinum, 1 liter
Equipments
Blender
Knife and cutting board
Siever
Pan and stirring spoon
Stove
Plastic tray
Processing of Nata de Piña
1. Prepare all the materials
2. Mix and boil pineapple juice, DAP, sugar, and glacial acetic acid.
3. Let the juice cool in a plastic tray, and then add starter Acetobacter xylinum and cover with paper.
4. Fermentation lasts for 14 days, and then the process will form a nata layer. Cut the nata into size 1 x 1 x 1 cm, wash and boil.
5. Soak the nata in water for one night, and change soaking water repeatedly to eliminate acid taste.
6. Add 40% sugar solution, essence, and benzoic.
7. Package nata in cups covered with plastic.
Cooperating agency for this topic:
West Kalimantan Assessment Institute for Agricultural Technology, 2005-12-01
Source: agnet.org
