The Characteristics of Low Sugar Jelly Made From Porang Flour and Agar

Abstract

Jelly is a food product with a chewy and soft texture, so widely used as a dessert ingredient and a mixture in drinks. Jelly could be produced from konjac or glucomannan flour that is formulated with other additives to give the desired texture. The objective of this study was to determine the optimum proportion of porang flour as a gelling agent in producing jelly powder and to determine the effect of adding low-calorie sweeteners on the characteristics of the product. The study was arranged in a completely randomized design. The formulations to be carried out in the first stage are: konjac: agar (60:40); porang flour: agar (40:60); konjac: agar: guar gum (40:40:20); konjac: agar: guar gum (40:30:30); konjac: guar gum (40:60) and commercial product. The potential formula from the previous stage were optimized to get the optimum formula of porang jelly powder. The optimum formula then mixes with low-calorie sweetener, i.e stevia; sorbitol-erythritol-steviol glycoside mix that compared with sucrose. The results showed that the proportion of porang flour: agar (40:60) produced jelly with the optimum texture characteristics and the lowest syneresis. The use of stevia increases the texture characteristics and decreases the syneresis of jelly. The sugar total of jelly powder was quite low, namely 9.5 g for 100 g jelly powder, which is equivalent to 0.18% w/v of jelly.