Nutritional Composition and Glycaemic Index of Milk Chocolate using Different Sweeteners

Palm sugar is a type of sugar that has been claimed to be a healthier alternative sweetener to sucrose because it contains minerals, vitamins, and antioxidant and exhibits low glycaemic index. Malaysian Tualang honey has been reported to provide significant nutritional and medicinal benefits. The substitution of the sugarcane used in the milk chocolate with these natural sweeteners is known to lowering the GI value of milk chocolate. In this study, the glycaemic index of the respondents after consuming the test chocolates (control, PS, H) and the proximate analysis of the chocolate were evaluated. One group of female students named Group A (n=10) were asked to consumed the control, PS and H chocolates after an overnight fasting. Blood glucose level were evaluated at 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes. The result showed that the consuming the control, PS and H chocolates cause a slower rise in the respondent’s blood glucose level indicating low GI food. The proximate analysis revealed that both chocolates sweetened with palm sugar and honey had significantly higher moisture content but no significant different observed for fat and protein content compared to control. Chocolate sweetened with palm sugar also had significantly higher ash and crude fibre content compared to contro

Cash economy: tax evasion among SMEs in Malaysia

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between tax evasion and certain demographic factors such as location, engagement of tax agent, size and type of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) industry in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, using proprietary tax audit data from the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRBM) on the 2011 tax returns of SMEs, the authors run a multiple regression analysis to examine the impact of location, agent, type of industry, size of enterprise and type of tax evasion on SMEs’ tax evasion in Malaysia. Findings – The authors find that tax evasion among SMEs in Malaysia is the highest when the business is located in a suburban environment and has no tax agent. Tax evasion is also influenced by the size of the SME (micro or medium). Originality/value – This study gives insight that the IRBM can use to aid its collection department in profiling SMEs that have a higher tendency to evade paying tax. Keywords Malaysia, SMEs, Tax evasion, Cash economy, Corporate income ta

The Effect of Processing Conditions on Production of Resistant Starch Type III (RS3) from Breadfruit Starch

Resistant starchtype III (RS3) possess various beneficial physiological effects as well as functionality in food containing resistant starch (RS). In this study, RS3 is produced from breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) starch using different processing conditions involving disruption of starch granules, enzymatic debranching of starch polymer, starch retrogradation and drying. Then, the morphology and size of the starch granules were observed using scanning electron microscope (SEM). A sample with the highest RS content (54.59%), denoted as P8 was produced when the breadfruit starch was suspended in distilled water, gelatinised by heating at 90°C for 30 minutes, followed by starch debranching with 20 New Pullulanase Unit Novo (NPUN) enzyme per g starch at 60°C for 24 hours. The suspension was then autoclaved at 121°C for 1 hour and cold stored at 4°C for 24 hours. Further treatment of P8 sample with 0.5 M HCl acid at 60°C for 24 hours, produced HCl-breadfruit RS3 with 57.86% of RS content. It was observed that hydrolysis of breadfruit RS3 sample with HCl produced smoother starch granules with more crystalline region and proportionally increased the RS content when compared to other treated sample. This study revealed that different processing conditions were significantly influenced the percentage of yield and properties of RS type III produced from breadfruit starch

Quality characteristics of biodegradable film prepared from duck feet gelatin

Biodegradable films containing different concentrations of duck feet gelatin (DFG) (2.0, 2.5, 3.0, and 3.5%) were produced, and their mechanical and physicochemical properties were measured and compared to those of biodegradable films made from commercial bovine gelatin (CBG). Gel strength of DFG (306.96 g) was significantly higher than that of CBG (216.78 g). Elongation at break (EAB), thickness, and water vapour permeability of DFG films significantly increased as the concentration of gelatin increased. Films with DFG concentration of 3.5% had the EAB value 33.00, compare to CBG with EAB value 25.56%. DFG films exhibit significantly lower water solubility compared to CBG films. Water solubility of films with DFG concentration of 3.5% is 32.37%, meanwhile for CBG is 48.74%. Both of the gelatin films prepared from DFG and CBG were transparent, as indicated by the high L*, ranging from 94.64 to 96.01 for DFG and 95.54 to 96.06 for CBG sources. These results indicate that DFG has great potential for future application as a source material for production of gelatin-based biodegradable films

Antioxidant activity of bioactive peptide derived from Pekin duck feet gelatin hydrolysate

Malaysia is one of the main producers of duck meat globally with increasing demands. Increasing in duck production will also increase the number of duck by-products such as skin, feet and bones. Pekin duck (Anas platyrhyncos domestica) is one of the famous duck breeds. Gelatin that was extracted from Pekin duck feet has shown a potential raw material for the production of bioactive peptide that can involve in various functions of the organism physiologically for example antioxidant effects. Pekin Duck feet gelatin was hydrolyzed by using five commercial enzymes (Alcalase, Esperase, Flavourzyme, Neutrase and Protamex) to identify radical scavenging potencies of derived bioactive peptides. All the five enzymes were studied under three different enzyme-substrate ratio (1:10, 1:15, 1:20) with every enzyme optimum pH and temperature. Scavenging activities studied included DPPH radical scavenging activity and ABTS radical scavenging activity. In DPPH radical scavenging activity, all the five enzymes showed the highest percentage of radical scavenging activity at (1:20) enzyme-substrate ratio condition. Among the five enzymes studied, gelatin hydrolyzed with Protamex showed the highest activity (54.83%), followed by Alcalase (53.12%), Esperase (49.81%), Flavourzyme (49.32%) and lastly Neutrase (47.49%) at sample concentration 4.5 mg/ml. The half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) value of the bioactive peptide for ABTS radical scavenging activity was measured. Alcalase has produced the duck feet gelatin hydrolysate that has the lowest IC50 value against ABTS radical scavenging activity with value (0.45%) followed by Esperase (0.54%), Neutrase (0.57%), Protamex (0.60%) and lastly Flavourzyme (0.74%)

Physichochemical properties of Khaki Campbell, Muscovy and Pekin duck feet gelatin extracted with acetic acid

Gelatin is a high molecular weight polypeptides with water soluble properties that was derived from collagen by thermal treatment hydrolysis (Bailey & Light., 1989; Kuan et al., 2016). The major source of gelatin production in Europe is 60% from pigs and another 40% of gelatin production are from bones and skin of cattle and other animal (Aykin-Dinçer et al., 2017). Nevertheless, the market for non-porcine and non-bovine gelatin has been increased recently by Kosher, Muslims and Vegetarian regarding the halal food issue and occurrence of diseases from bovine such as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and food and mouth diseases (FMD) (Karim & Bhat., 2009; Samsudin et al., 2018). Hence, another alternatives to gelatin is from mammalian-derived source such as avian sources for example from duck feet (Kuan et al., 2016)

Physicochemical Properties of Peking Duck Skin Gelatin Extracted Using Acid Pretreatment (ADS) or Mixed Alkaline Acid Pretreatment (ALDS)

Duck skin is the by-product of duck meat production, and it is a readily available source of gelatin that may serve as an alternative to gelatin made from pigs and cows. In this study, the physicochemical properties of Peking duck skin gelatin were assessed. Duck skin gelatin was extracted using acid pretreatment (ADS) or mixed alkaline-acid pretreatment (ALDS). The extraction yield of ALDS (1.95%) was significantly higher than that of ADS (1.33%), and the recovery of protein of ALDS was 46.47% compared to 43.77% for ADS. The bloom value of ADS (364.10 g) was significantly higher than that of ALDS (205.13 g) and commercial type B bovine gelatin (BG, 224.20 g). The high bloom value of ADS and medium bloom value of ALDS mean that they can be used in many food applications. The hydroxyproline content of ADS (13.84 g/100 g) also was significantly higher than that of ALDS (10.25 g/100 g) and BG (12.87 g/100 g). The pH of ADS and BG (5.31 and 4.90, respectively) did not differ significantly, whereas the pH of ALDS was 8.34. Viscosity values of ADS and ADLS were 13.51 and 12.35 mPas, respectively, which were significantly higher than that of BG (3.62 mPas). Overall, these results show that duck skin is a potential raw material for gelatin production, as it has a high bloom value and is readily available in Malaysia

Physicochemical properties of duck (Khaki Campbell) skin gelatin pre-treated with acetic acid and citric acid

Gelatin is the main derivative of a collagen obtained by partial hydrolysis of collagenous material and has unique properties which are the ability to form thermo-reversible gels and emulsion (Rasli and Sarbon, 2015). These properties contribute to a wide range of application in many industrial fields such as food industry, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and photographic industry due to its functionality. According to Sompie et al. (2015) the higher quality of gelatin depends on its physical and chemical properties, rheological properties and manufacturing method. The awareness of the halal product is not only concerned for the muslim consumers but also non-muslim consumers. The non-muslim consumers preference about the halal issue is related to some factors such as hygiene, quality and safety of the product provided from a halal product. There are many issues related to the halal and one of them is gelatin. In addition, the halal issue is arisen when the gelatin used comes from prohibited sources such as porcine, the animal that is not slaughtered according to shariah law such as bovine (Fathin et al., 2018)