Peningkatan Kapasitas Petani Cokelat Desa Randualas Kecamatan Kare Kabupaten Madiun Melalui Edukasi Kualitas Kemasan Produk Cokelat

<p align="justify"><em><strong>Increasing the Capacity of Chocolate Farmers in Randualas Village Kare District Madiun Regency through Education of Chocolate Product Packaging Quality.</strong></em> Cocoa is one of the largest commodities from Madiun Regency. Cocoa has the potential to be developed into processed chocolate products that will become typical souvenirs of Madiun Regency. The cocoa farmers in Randualas Village, Kare District, Madiun Regency have received counseling on the processing of cocoa beans into ready-to-consume chocolate products. However, the chocolate product was wraped in only an HDPE plastic layer which was less attractive to consumers, so it is necessary to improve the quality of the chocolate packaging. This community empowerment aims to increase the ability of cocoa farmers (partners) to package chocolate products properly and attractively so it will further increase the economic value of their chocolate product. The activities are education and counseling about the importance of packaging for chocolate products and how to design good and attractive packaging. Monitoring and evaluation were also carried out by filling out questionnaires by participants regarding the level of understanding of the material before and after being presented. The result showed that the partners understand the importance of packaging in food products in general and packaging for chocolate products in particular. It was evidenced that after counseling, up to 50% of participants understand the importance of packaging in the food packaging process and 50% of participants understand the criteria for good packaging for chocolate products.</p>

Food product design with Wijaya Kusuma character based on pleasurable design

Understanding and appreciation of the identity of the Universitas Wijaya Kusuma Surabaya with the motto Anggung Wimbuh Linuwih, which means always growing and developing for the better, needs to be done. The strategy that can be applied is to design a superior product that has the character of Wijaya Kusuma This food product was designed with the nuances of the character of Wijaya Kusuma. The product that reviewed in this research is chocolate product. Food product design in this study used the concept of pleasurable design, which reviews product design from the aspects of functionality, usability, and pleasure. Pleasurable design was chosen with the consideration that this product design method involves customers as product users to participate in building product designs as needed and wanted. The purpose of this study was to determine the attributes of chocolate products according to market demand, as well as to design a chocolate product design with the character of Wijaya Kusuma values. Based on the research results obtained 16 product configurations based on seven product attributes (taste, sweetness level, texture, shape, packaging method, health benefits, and appearance/profile). Attributes that have a high importance value are attributes of appearance/profile and taste. Attributes of appearance/profile can directly describe the character of Universitas Wijaya Kusuma Surabaya. while the taste attribute is one of the key attributes in food products. Product design 5 (chocolate taste, slightly sweet, texture of slightly hard, rectangle shape, folded packaging method, no preservatives, and UWKS logo profile) became the selected product with a total utility value of 10.75.

Chocolate's Blooming Phenomenon: A Brief Review of The Formation Process and Its Influencing Factors

One of the indications of chocolate product degradation is blooming. It is distinguished by the loss of surface shine, which is replaced by a white coating. These effects are caused by insufficient processing, inappropriate chocolate content, and incompatible storage conditions. It can alter these characteristics to enhance chocolate's resistance to blooming and its texture, flavor, and appearance. Several factors must be considered when creating blooming-resistant chocolate, such as chocolate particle size, fat content, processing techniques, and storage conditions. This concise review will discuss fat blooming in chocolate, from its formation to its contributing factors and methods for resolving it.

Physical and sensory characteristics of milk and white compound chocolate added with Asian pigeonwings flower (Clitoria ternatea)

Milk compound chocolate and white compound chocolate are confectionery products derived from cocoa that are popular worldwide, while the Asian pigeonwings flower is an herbal plant with the potential to be added to chocolate to increase the functional value of chocolate product. In this study, Asian pigeonwings flower powder was added to milk compound chocolate and white compound chocolate and evaluated its physical and sensory characteristics. The experimental design employed a completely randomized design (CRD) with one factor: the concentration of Asian pigeonwings flower powder (0%, 5%, 10%, and 15%). Physical characteristics included color and hardness, while sensory characteristics consisted of color, aroma, taste, texture, and overall, determined by a scoring preference test. The results revealed that the addition of Asian pigeonwings flower powder affected the chocolate’s color and hardness and decreased the panelists’ acceptance levels. In this case, further research about optimizing the formulation is needed, for example encapsulation of Asian pigeonwings flower extract in milk compound chocolate and white compound chocolate to improving physical and sensory attributes.

Consumer PReferences for Dark Chocolate Products Fortified with Spirulina Platensis Using Analytical Hierarchy Process Method

Chocolate is a product made from cocoa (Theobroma cacao) beans and fat which is very popular because of its taste and nutrition. Dark chocolate has health benefits because of it’s contains antioxidants in the form of phenols and flavonoids. In previous study, the addition of β-carotene extract from S. platensis with a dose of 0.372% to dark chocolate products was aimed to fulfilling energy intake and vitamin A needs. Thus, it’s important to know the consumer pReferences for dark chocolate products fortified with S. platensis. This study aimed to determine the priority weight of the attributes for consumers and measure consumer pReferences for dark chocolate products fortified with S. platensis. This study used the Analytical Hierarchy Process method. Data were collected by distributing questionnaires to 100 respondents unskilled who representing the population level in Yogyakarta, using purposive random sampling. The results showed that the priority attributes of consumer in choosing dark chocolate products fortified with S. platensis are taste, sub-attribute of bitter taste (47.8%), price, sub-attribute of low price (53.3%), product benefits, subattribute of nutritional benefit (38.2%), flavor, sub-attribute of sweet flavor (64.2%), texture, sub-attribute of smooth texture (57.7%), aroma, sub-attribute of typical chocolate aroma (72.8%), and packaging, sub-attribute of packaging 2 (Lindt packaging) (25.8%). Meanwhile, the choice of dark chocolate products according to the consumer pReferences is dark chocolate product fortified with S. platensis with priority weight of 55.8%.

UTILIZATION OF LEMONGRASS EXTRACT (CYMBOPOGON CITRATUS) AGAINST THE ANTIOXIDANT CONTENT AND SENSORY PROPERTIES OF DARK CHOCOLATE PRODUCTS

The use of lemongrass extract on dark chocolate products is a diversification of processed chocolate products to increase the antioxidant content and sensory pofile. This research aims to study the effect of comparison chocolate and spice extracts, interaction chocolate and spice extracts comparison of lemongrass to antioxidant compounds and organoleptic characteristics, and to know the chemical properties of selected products. This study consisted of two phases: the first stage is to prepare lemongrass extract with the steam distillation method, the second stage is to make products that include chocolate melting, mixing and molding, then antioxidant tests and organoleptic to determine the selected products with quality sensory tasts and hedonic tests/preferences, chocolate product selected test chemical (moisture, ash, fat, protein, carbohydrate, and calories). The results of the study by testing the antioxidant different uses of chocolate on antioxidant components showed couverture chocolate types have a higher %inhibition compared to the chocolate kind of compound, the higher the addition of lemongrass extract, the higher antioxidant activity, in the organoleptic tests showed significantly different the parameters of aroma, taste and after taste, but not significantly different from the parameters of melt, interactions between different types of chocolate use, as well as the ratio of chocolate and lemongrass extract significantly influence antioxidant activity, but do not significantly affect organoleptic test results, couverture chocolate products with the addition of 0.3% spice extract are declared as selected products with antioxidant activity of 83.594%, 1.41% moisture, 1.04% ash, 20.96% fat, 3.40% protein content, 73.19% carbohydrates and total calories 495 kcal/100 grams.