PHYSICAL AND SENSORY CHARACTERISTICS OF BEEF MEATBALLS WITH COCOYAM (Xantosoma sagittifolium) FLOUR AS AN ALTERNATIVE OF BORAX

Meatballs are processed products of meat mixed with herbs and starch. The use of starch in the meatball serves to improve the texture. Sometimes people add borax to improve meatball’s texture. However, borax is harmful to health so it must be replaced. A compound that can replace is glucomannan, which is contained in cocoyam. Cocoyam should be bolted first to remove oxalate compounds. The purpose of this research is to assess the effect of cocoyam flour as the substitution of tapioca starch on the physical and sensory characteristics of beef meatballs and to determine the best concentration of cocoyam flour addition that can replace borax. The treatment given to meatballs was the substitution rate of cocoyam flour at 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, and 35% of total flour used. As comparisons, meatballs with the addition of STPP and borax, as well as commercial meatballs were used. Beef meatballs were analyzed, which included cooking loss, color, texture (hardness and springiness), and water holding capacity. The sensory test using ranking hedonic test included color, texture, taste and overall. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistic version 20 program. The result showed that the higher concentration of cocoyam flour make meatball decreased cooking loss, darker color, decreased hardness value, increased springiness value, improved water holding capacity, and increased sensory favorability level. The best meatball sample was the sample with 35% of cocoyam flour with 8.42% of cooking loss, dark gray color, hardness value 2204,04 gf, springiness value 13,08 mm, water holding capacity value 9,4%, and an overall sensory score of 2.87. The use of cocoyam flour can replace the borax to produce a better meatball texture. But still need to be optimized in order to be accepted by the consumer in sensory characteristic