Improving Meatball Quality Using Different Varieties of Rice Bran as Natural Antioxidant

Abstract

Meatballs are very popular in every social class in many developing countries including Indonesia and are produced both under the cottage or commercial meat processing industries. Rice bran contains antioxidants and therefore the substitution of cassava starch (tapioca) in making meatball are expected to improve the functional quality of “bakso” into one of traditional healthy restructured meat product. Rice bran has antioxidant activity which different among varieties and agronomical environment. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the bioactive compounds such us antioxidant activity of crude extract of rice bran from Bramo, Serang and Menthik rice varieties, those were obtained from East Java, Indonesia and to study the efficacy of utilization the above rice bran to improve functional quality of meat ball. Results of the study showed that the best substitution preferred by panelists was the substitution of tapioca starch with 50% Serang rice bran with organoleptic scores of 4.98; 4.84; 4.93; 4.6; 4.5 and 4.9, respectively, for color, aroma, hardness, chewiness, taste, and flavor. This substitution treatment also increased (p<0.05) the antioxidant activity from 16.75% to 35.78% and total phenol of meatballs from 37.82 mg/100 g to 90.81 mg/100 g. The results also showed that substitution of tapioca starch with 50% Serang rice bran obviously improved the eating quality of the meatballs as a community healthy food.