Drying of Insoluble Fiber from Nata de Coco

Abstrak

Insoluble dietary fiber plays an important role in enhancing the functional and nutritional quality of food products. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of drying time on the physical and chemical characteristics of insoluble fiber derived from nata de coco (NDC), including weight loss, moisture content, ash content, and crude fiber content. The experiment employed a completely randomized design with three drying time treatments at 80 °C: 1 hour (IF-A), 2 hours (IF-B), and 3 hours (IF-C). The results showed that drying time had a highly significant effect on weight loss, with the lowest value observed in IF-A (54%) and the highest in IF-C (85.4%). Drying time also significantly affected moisture content, where IF-C produced the lowest moisture level (5.7%) and IF-A the highest (72.5%). In contrast, drying duration did not significantly influence ash content, with an average value of approximately 4% across treatments. Crude fiber content increased with longer drying time, reaching 23.55%, 67.07%, and 70.86% for IF-A, IF-B, and IF-C, respectively. These findings indicate that drying time is a critical factor in optimizing the quality of insoluble fiber from nata de coco, particularly in reducing moisture content and increasing fiber concentration.