The objective of this research was to develop the process for the production of Nipa bowls from Nipa palm (Nypa fruticans Wurmb.) waste by using solar energy. Two types of solar dryer were investigated, (1) solar dryer cabinet (SDC) and (2) solar dryer cabinet coupled with heater (SDCH) and were compared to the traditional sun dryer (SD) method. The results demonstrated that the use of SDCH could reduce the humidity of the Nipa leaves to 15.23 ± 0.78% within 2 hours. This result was statistically significant at 95% confident compared to those results obtained from SDC (49.91 ± 0.78%) and SD (38.66 ± 0.21%). The dried leaves obtained from the three drying methods were tested for bacterial contamination. For SD, the maximum bacteria contamination was 95,000 ± 40,414 cfu/piece which was higher than SDC (480 ± 173 cfu/piece) and SDCH (463 ± 112 cfu/piece) methods. The SDC and SDCH techniques were implemented at Palian river basin community (Ban Na Yod Tong Nipa Palm Leaf Handicraft) in Wang Won Sub-District, Kantang District,Trang Province, Thailand. These techniques could enhance the drying process of Nipa leaves and thus increase the production of Nipa bowls 3.5 times reducing Nipa waste up to 1.83 tons. The villagers could produce approximately 183,000 bowls/year generating an income of more than 55,800 USD for 60 families.
The application of ozone as a treatment system for reducing microbial contaminant in Nipa bowls which are local products of the Palian river basin community, Trang province in Southern Thailand, was presented in this research. The ozone treatment system was designed and investigated for its performance to reduce microbial contaminant in nipa bowl products. Parameters affecting the performance of the system were optimized as well as ozone amount and treatment time. Under optimum condition (600 mg/h ozone and treatment time of 4 hours), the microbial decontamination was 4 log reduction, and the products could be stored for one month. The moisture content and the brightness of the ozone-treated products were significantly different from the untreated products when statistically tested at 95% confidence level. The moisture contents were 9.46 ± 0.10 and 10.54±0.31 %, and the brightness (L* value) were 74.93 ± 0.49 and 70.47 ± 0.65 for the ozone-treated and untreated products, respectively. Furthermore, the residual heavy metals were investigated, and no trace of metals was reported in nipa bowl samples. As a result, the nipa bowl products had met the standards as regards safety of food containers required by the Department of Medical Sciences Ministry of Public Health, Thailand. Following this collaboration between the university and the community, over 251,564 pieces of nipa bowls were sold which generated a total income of more than 84,000 USD to the Palian river basin community.
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