Salacca fruit, also known as Snake fruit has is indigenous to and has been cultivated throughout Indonesia, and there are at least 30 cultivars, most of which have an astringent taste and are sweet. Two popular cultivars are salak pondoh from Yogyakarta province (found in 1980s) and salak Bali from Bali island.
Pondoh salacca or “salak pondoh” is one of the most popular fruits of the Yogyakarta Province in Indonesia. With its excellent taste and a technology introduction for year-long fruiting and for processing, there is a great potential to increase the commercial value of this fruit.
Various processed products of salacca fruits have been produced and marketed by farmers, like salacca syrup, salacca crispy, and salacca taffi. Salacca crispy or krisa is a snack food which is popular among consumers.
Processing of Crispy Salacca
1. Select salacca fruit picked at the age of 5-6 months after pollination.
2. Sort the fruit to obtain the same fruit size, and take away damaged fruit.
3. Cut the fruit meat clove into two parts with the same thickness.
4. Dry in a dryer or vacuum dryer.
- Regulate dryer up to 70°C, and with a pressure of 0 atm.
- Measure 5.5 kg of cut salacca fruit and placed into cooking oil in the dryer machine.
- Wait until pressure reaches 70 atm, with constant temperature of 70°C.
- After the pressure has reached 70 atm, lift the salacca fruit from the oil and drain in the machine.
- Drain the crispy in the machine at a temperature of 70° C and a pressure of 70 atm for 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes of draining, turn off the dryer, and lift the crispy up from the machine.
- Processing time of crispy in the machine is ± 60 minutes.
5. Drying in blower machine.
- After draining in the vacuum dryer, wind-dry the salacca fruit in the blower machine for 5-10 minutes to make it crispy and ungreasy.
6. Sieving
- Sieve the crispy to separate the fruit skin from the crispy, then sort the good ones with uniform size from the damaged ones.
7. Packaging
- The crispy should be packaged in vacuumed plastic, and labeled with information on composition, registration with the Ministry of Health, and expiration date.
Commercial Value Added
- The keeping quality of crispy product is longer than fresh salacca fruit.
- More preferred by consumers because of its taste.
- Salacca crispy has a potential as an export commodity.
- Wider marketing.
Source: www.agnet.org; Photos: dreonatray.com, alibaba.com