Improving the Quality of Meatball Products Using Transglutaminase Enzyme to Increase Selling Vallue

Abstract

Meatballs is a processed animal product that is very popular and consumed by most people in Indonesia. According to the results of the national socio-economic survey conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2017, the daily consumption of beef meatballs in Indonesia from 2013 to 2017 has increased by 0.58 percent per year, this is due to an increase and change in people's lifestyles that tend to choose processed products that are practical and ready to serve. One of the aspects used by consumers to determine whether a product is good or not is quality, because quality is an important factor that influences the decision of every consumer to buy a product. The quality that needs to be considered in meatball products is elasticity. The chewy texture of meatballs is determined by the meat used as the main ingredient in its manufacture and can also be influenced by food additives such as Sodium Tripolyposphat (STTP). STTP is a chemical that has the ability to thicken food. Therefore, in an effort to reduce the use of chemicals, this study aims to improve the quality of meatballs by modifying proteins using enzymes, namely transglutaminase enzymes, which can improve the quality of texture and specific volume of meatballs so as to increase the selling value of these products. The results of protein modification show that the increase in the quality of the texture of 39% chewiness compared to without modification, so that the more the addition of enzymes will make the texture quality more chewy. while the flavour increased by 11,90% and brightness increased by 35%.