Lecturer at the Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Brawijaya University (FTP UB) Dr. Ir. Anang Lastriyanto, M.Si and his team from Pattimura University and Mataram University carried out honey processing research. For 3.5 years, research was carried out with funding from the LPDP (Education Fund Management Institution) of the Republic of Indonesia.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for honey increased rapidly, unfortunately after the pandemic subsided, people started abandoning honey. So that stocks at the farmer level pile up and prices on the market fall. Anang views this as an opportunity to utilize the technology he is researching.
Anang said that the results in the first year of improving the honey processing process. At the beginning of the research, which coincided with the start of the pandemic, a tool was produced to heat honey or a pasteurizer. After that, rapid cooling is needed so that the honey doesn’t go stale during the cooling process using a prototype in the form of a vacuum cooler. According to Anang, honey that is hot and then immediately cooled suddenly has a longer shelf life. Because long cooling will make microbes stick to the honey.
“I have compared it by cooling a few millimeters with the same millimeters, with the engine is 40 times faster,” he said.
Meanwhile, theoretically, the shelf life of the vacuum cooling process for bread and vegetables that has been tested previously has been proven to be longer. Anang explained this because the cooling process is fast and there is less contamination from the air.
In the following year, the team developed a miniplan combining pasteurization and vacuum cooling processes. It turns out that combining these two stages gives rise to two new benefits, namely reducing honey foam when stored or even disappearing completely and reducing water content. “Heating with rapid cooling actually removes the foam, which guarantees that the process will be fast, right? Moreover during this process, the water is reduced, so there is 4 in 1,” he added.
Anang explained the weakness of the traditional honey heating process, to remove foam there is additional water during the process and this does not guarantee quality. “If the foam doesn’t disappear, keep heating it,” he said explaining the traditional honey processing process.
The 4 in 1 innovation is the second year’s achievement of Anang and his team’s findings, which consists of heating, fast cooling, removing foam and reducing water content. This innovation has been published in Trubus magazine, LPDP magazine, the book 100 Indonesian Innovations and international journals.
This innovation continued to diversify honey from liquid honey to powdered honey in the third year. Liquid honey is difficult to clean and difficult to mix. “For example, powder can be mixed with powdered milk,” he explained.
This research initiated other products into powder, kombucha, egg yolk, snakehead fish extract (albumin).
“Later, the results of this research will have very broad prospects because the tools can be made by Indonesians themselves,” he concluded. [sitirahma/ UB PR/ Trans. Iir]
