Ginger as a natural antioxidant source to keep oil quality in the food product

Oleoresin extracted from ginger has brownish green color that tends to dark in color. The ginger oleoresin contain 20-30% of essential oil, 10% oil, and 50-70% resin constituent (especially gingerol) that has the role in the formation of hot characteristics of ginger.
The ginger essential oil if separated from the ginger oleoresin, is in the form of shiny yellow liquid, and has the characteristic of ginger flavor. The chemical component in the ginger essential oil is a-pinene, camphene, phellendrene, mycene, cineole, methyte-pteone, borneol, linalool, citral, C10 and Ca-aldehide, a-dan b-zingiberone, a-curcumene, farnesene, sesquiterpene alcohol.

The hot and bite taste from the ginger and the ginger oleoresin caused by the resin constituent (non volatile) like gingerol and shogaol. Fresh ginger has a high level of gingerol so it is hotter than dried ginger that has lower level of gingerol and has already experience a changing in the level of shogaol, zingerone, and paradol.
The spices can prevent rancidity and can keep shelf life of the food by blocking the fat or oil oxidation, especially in the food with high oil content. In the oil oxidation process, fat or oil is breaks into peroxide (free radical) as the result of its interaction with the air or oxygen and finally become aldehyde, ketone and alcohol that give rancid smell to the fat or oil. The spices can prevent the oil oxidation process by blocking or “catching” free radicals, so they can keep the oil quality. The natural antioxidant in the ginger is known to become a strong natural antioxidant in the meat product, animal fat, and soya fat, and also gives uniqe flavor to the traditional food products that contain oil in Indonesia like geplak (made from coconut meat), jenang (made from coconut milk and sticky rice flour), and also virgin coconut oil (made from coconut milk).
Natural compound that work as the natural antioxidant is fenolic compund (gingerol and shogaol) that can be found in the ginger oleoresin. Some researches studied in the potential of ginger oleoresin as natural antioxidant in Indonesian traditional food mentioned above. Some researchers from Indonesia found that the antioxidant activitiy of ginger oleoresin obviously higher than other spices such as Curcuma, etc.

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Virgin Coconut Oil (Vco): Technology Of Processing, Quality And Benefits

Codex Alimentarius (the organization under FAO that work along with WHO that concern on the food standard), defined that the virgin coconut oil is oil or food fat produced without changing the oil, the oil is produced only with mechanical process and minimal heat usage. Otherwise, the pure coconut oil is the coconut oil that in its process does not use chemical substance or extreme heat, so the coconut oil produced still keeps its real fitochemical structure that undergo a natural process so the taste and the smell of the oil is unique. This virgin coconut oil is different with the usual coconut oil made from the copra; the virgin coconut oil is made from old fresh coconut picked from the coconut tree.

The Technology of VCO Process
The making process of virgin coconut oil all is done in a low temperature (room temperature) and does not undergo heating process. There are many alternative technologies in making virgin coconut oil, but there are two main processing technologies that developed a lot today they are wet grinding and the fermentation or enzymatic. The separating processes used in the wet grinding process are the boiling, the freezing and the centrifugation process. In the other side, the process of making the virgin coconut oil by fermentation process is developed through three advanced processes they are multi steps heating, enzymatic and the luring process.
The making process of virgin coconut oil by fermentation is begins with the grating process of the coconut, and then continued with the milking process so the coconut milk is obtained. The coconut milk is then fermented from 24 until 36 hours. In the mean time, there is a separation of the water and the oil. Because the making process does not use heating process, besides producing Medium Chain Fatty Acid (MCFA), the existence of vitamin E and the contained enzymes in the fruit still can be keep.
Quality Of VCO
One of standards that can be used as a reference for assuming the quality of the virgin coconut oil is the standard from the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community (APPC). APPC is an organization of the world government of 15 main countries of coconut producers that consist more than 90% of the coconut production and product export of coconut all over the world. In the standard of virgin coconut oil based on APCC, it is mentioned that the virgin coconut oil should has clear appearance. Besides, the other parameter of the virgin coconut oil quality that related with the oil oxidation is the free fat acid and the number of peroxide. The level of free fat acid should not be more than 0,5%, and the level of peroxide should not be more than 3 meq/kg oil. Beside that, in the virgin coconut oil, there should be no bad smell or strange smell.
The composition of the fatty acid composition is also become the quality standard of the virgin coconut oil. The high laurite acid level in the virgin coconut oil becomes the characteristics of this product. The laurite acid is the fatty acid that mostly found in the virgin coconut oil. The good level of laurite acid based on APPC (2005) is 43 – 53%. A research from Sebelas Maret University of Surakarta, Indonesia that works on the virgin coconut oil from the process using the fermentation with many kinds of microbes found that the highest level of laurite acid in the pure coconut oil (virgin coconut oil) is in the process with the room temperature with the addition of culture starter Streptococcus Thermopylae and from the spontaneous fermentation (natural fermentation) in the temperature of 400C.

Benefits of VCO
According to Dr. Bruce Fife, a researcher who actively work on the VCO stated that VCO can increase the High Density Lipoperin (HDL, the cholesterol that assumed to be good for human’s health), so VCO can keep the body from coronary heart disease. So, the cholesterol that has the potential in blocking the blood vessel can be minimized.

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Sesame oil processing

Sesame plants are included in the Sesamum genus. Number of species of this genus is quite a lot, but only 18 species had been identified among others. They are Sesamum alatum, Sesamum angolense, Sesamum angustifolium, Sesamum indicum, Sesamum laciniatun, Sesamum latifolium, Sesamum occidentale, Sesamum protatum, and Sesamum radiatum. Many species cultivated in Indonesia are the Sesamum indicum.
Sesame varieties is very diverse in the world. Sesame varieties are generally divided into two types, the long-lived one and usually with a fork stem, and the type of short stem with no fork. There are two kinds of sesame known in the international market, which is black and white.

Characteristics of sesame in Indonesia are generally long-lived, i.e. 120-140 days, ramose dense, and producing low quantity yield, aproximately 350 kg / ha. Sesame seeds is the material bearing vegetable oil with low saturated fatty acid content that can be consumed directly, in the form of flour or oil. In addition, sesame seeds needed for the raw material of industries such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and pesticides industry. Sesame oil, used traditionally to prevent some diseases. Due to the roles of sesame seed and oil, sesame seed demand will increase in the future. Consumption of sesame oil is mainly in Japan, EU, Korea, the United States and Egypt. All of those countries are developed countries.
Sesame seed contains 50-53% vegetable oil, 20% protein, 7-8% rough fiber, 15% residue-free nitrogen, and 4.5-6.5% ash. Sesame oil is rich in unsaturated fatty acid, especially oleat acid (C18: 1) and linoleat acid (C18:2, Omega-6), and 8-10% saturated fatty acid. Sesame oil is also rich in Vitamin E. Sesame cake, produced after the oil extracted is used as a source of protein in cattle feed in Indonesia.
Sesame cake as a side product of oil extraction can also be processed to be cabuk. Cabuk is an Indonesian traditional food produced from fermentation of sesame cake. Cabuk is usually processed with garlic, onion, chili, tomatoes, and salt, into a delicious side dish. Cabuk contains protein aproximately 36-39.8%. Cabuk also can be processed to be a sauce, just like soya sauce. Firstly, cabuk is saved in a closed container for a month to allow optimum fermentation. Then, fermentation product is boiled until viscous, filtered, and flavored to be a delicious sesame sauce.

Sesame oil production
a. Cold Press
Cold press oil is produced at temperature of 450C or less. Cooling during extraction is necessary to improve the quality of oil. Virgin sesame oil is produced naturally, without chemicals, and additional material, and also by minimizing heat treatment during the process. Sesame oil with best quality obtained by using cold press, and then filtering. Virgin sesame oil produced from cold press contains higher natural antioxidant compound, such as tocopherol and carotene, than toasted sesame oil.
b. Toasted
In order to produce more delicious flavor in sesame oil, processors usually toast sesame seeds at temperature of 60-800C (5-15 minutes) before press it to extract its oil. High temperatures increase the yield, but it cause a decrease in oil taste, slightly bitter. Controlling toasting is important since excessive time of toasting will burnt sesame seeds so that the oil will lost their pores to come out from sesame seed. Then, sesame seed is ground by using sharp knive in a grinder machine, to facilitate the oil to be extracted by mechanical press. In this mechanical press, sesame oil will be separated from sesame cake and pass through filter pores . To produce 1 liter of oil requires 3 kg of sesame seeds. Finally, sesame oil is clarified in centrifuge machine.
c. Hot press
Hot press oil cheaper. In this method, oil yield will increase along with increasing temperature of process. Sesame cake produced from first mechanical press can be processed again to produce more oil at a high temperature (1000C). Crushing sesame seed into small particles also increase the yield. The smell of hot-pressed sesame oil is delicious.

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Tips: How to minimize bad effect of acrylamide in fried food ?

1.Keep a balanced food combination, such as consuming vegetables and fruits.
2.Consume natural food containing high level antioxidants proportionally.
3.Do not over-fry your food (such as too long time, fry it many times, or the temperature is too high). Tips: First, set the oils at a temperature needed, and then use it to fry your food , so your food do not take too long time at the hot pan and only a little part of the oil were absorbed to the food products.
4.Avoid using too much oil in a frying pan.

5.Avoid using oil that had been used at too high temperature, and many times of uses (It is suggested that you should not use your oil more than three times for frying).
6.Make sure that there is no detergent or soap left in the frying pan, because they can accelerate deterioration due to oil trapped in air bubbles formed by detergent or soap in the oil.
7.Reduce moisture content of your food before you fry it, so there are not much water in the products that can accelerate the decomposition of fat/ oil through hydrolysis of fat/ oil.
8.Cook (steam or boil) first your food that needs a long time of frying.


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