High productivity and fast mobility make packaged chili sauce popular with the public. The preferred packaged chili sauce is usually the homemade type of chili sauce which is mostly produced by MSMEs.
Generally, production is carried out simply in the form of aseptic packaging sterilization, including at UD Dede Satoe MSMEs. UD Dede Satoe is one of MSMEs that produces chili sauce with various types of variants. Some of the variants are korek chili sauce, squid chili sauce, cakalang chili sauce and kecombrang chili sauce.
So far, UD Dede Satoe and UMKM Sambal have implemented preservation techniques using aseptic packaging, namely the product and packaging are sterilized, aseptically cooled and aseptically packaged.
However, unfortunately there are often weaknesses in the application of this technique where aseptic conditions are not fully met, so to preserve the product oil is used as a contact barrier with air and preservatives are added.
However, not all consumers want to add a lot of oil and food additives in the form of preservatives to their routine consumption, so UD Dede Satoe ultimately cannot meet the export market. Therefore, a sterilization technique is needed where UD Dede Satoe does not need to add food additives in the form of preservatives.
To overcome this, UD Dede Satoe is trying to increase the shelf life without preservatives by reducing the water content of the chili sauce. However, the result is that reducing the water content greatly changes the appearance, nutrition and taste of UD Dede Satoe chili sauce.
Besides preserving chili sauce, the problem that occurs at UD Dede Satoe and other chili SMEs is that they do not have alternative solutions to overcome price fluctuations.
Raw material inventory in the form of paste or concentrate has the disadvantage that heating causes the taste to change. If it is frozen immediately, it will cause freezing injury so that the cell fluid comes out, resulting in the raw material experiencing a decrease in weight and a decrease in taste. In fact, MSMEs require good storage for months while maintaining freshness and taste so that the quality of the products produced can be maintained and consistent.
UD DD Satoe intensively held discussions with a team from the Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Brawijaya University, led by Dego Yusa Ali, STP. MSc. to find solutions to the problems faced. Based on the problems faced, the solutions that can be offered are as follows: First, to sterilize Dede Satoe chili sauce, you can use the retort pouch sterilization technique. This sterilization can use high temperatures for a certain time to kill pathogenic and spoilage microbes in the chili sauce and packaging at once, thus reducing the possibility of cross-contamination. By using retort pouch sterilization, MSMEs do not need to add additional food preservatives. In the end, the use of this technology can expand the market for MSME chili sauce overseas and become added value in the branding process for MSME chili sauce. Higher prices for export products can also provide an opportunity for UD DD Satoe’s income to increase, so that it can help grow the economy from their business.
Second, for inventory problems and price fluctuations. MSMEs can use a special technique called Individual Quick Freezing (IQF), namely fast freezing using dry ice which is able to protect raw materials from damage during the freezing process. In the end, raw materials stored in a fast-frozen state can still maintain their quality like fresh ingredients.
Preserving raw materials through freezing requires special techniques because of high water content in chili raw materials causes the formation of large ice crystals, resulting in freezing injury which results in a lot of cell fluid coming out and resulting in a high weight loss.
With IQF, UD Dede Satoe can store raw materials when the input of raw materials is large to be stored and used when the raw materials are difficult to obtain.
In this way, UD Dede Satoe does not need to limit production to adjust to fluctuating raw material prices because UD Dede Satoe already has production stock. UD DD Satoe can buy raw materials in large quantities when prices are cheap, then store them for production needs when raw material prices are high, so that production costs and production capacity can be stable throughout the year. In this way, UD Dede Satoe can maintain product quality and stability throughout the year.
This activity is supported by the Community Based Empowerment Program sub-theme Community Partnership Empowerment from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology in 2023. The team carrying out community service activities consists of Dego Yusa Ali, STP, M.Sc as Team Leader, and Prof. Dr. Teti Estiasih, STP, MP, Rini Yulianingsih, STP, MT, PhD, Riska Puspita, Lutfia Adila, and Brilliant Praditya as team members.
The results of this program activity consist of two parts. First, retort pouch sterilization already has tools according to the design and plan. This retort sterilization process has been tested on a laboratory scale and in field tests. On a laboratory scale, the test results prove that the retort pouch packaging and hand sealer used can withstand high temperature sterilization, namely 121ºC for 15 minutes. The packaging that has been carried out for chili products is packaged in the form of pouches and glass jars.
Second, individual quick freezing has been tested on a laboratory scale regarding the ratio of ingredients to dry ice used and storage time for one month. The ratio factor of ingredients to dry ice which starts to influence the rapid freezing of chili raw materials starts from a ratio of 1:4 to 1:6. In onions and garlic there was an increase in weight when frozen using dry ice. On the other hand, cayenne peppers and red chilies experience weight loss when frozen using dry ice. Then, regarding the storage time factor, it can be seen physically in the first and second weeks, in terms of color there is still no significant change, except for the shallots and garlic after thawing which turn slightly brown. Appearance is still quite good, and the texture of all the ingredients has softened a bit. Then, the weight of the chili types tends to decrease, but the weight of the onion types tends to increase. Apart from that, the freezing tool is still in the final stages.
Based on this, the problems at UD Dede Satoe that were explained at the beginning can begin to be resolved with the existence of a community-based empowerment program. According to Siti Fatimah, as a business actor at UD Dede Satoe, this program can help to penetrate the market share for safe and healthy food products and can export, especially to countries that do not accept food exports using preservatives. Having a tool for sterilizing retort pouches can help extend the shelf life of the product produced without having to add preservatives.
Moreover, the fast freezing technology using dry ice which was introduced to SMEs can also overcome the problem of erratic material price fluctuations. (dse/dya/OKY/UB PR/ Trans. Iir)
