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The improved understanding of health brought the limelight toward a nutritious diet. A healthy diet involves a pattern of food intake that is beneficial or at least possesses no harmful effect on health (Delvarianzadeh et al., 2020;de Ridder et al., 2017). Staple foods are the most important calorie sources that need to be improved in order to maintain good health and control diet-related ailments (Ghasemi et al., 2022). Thus, the development of functional food such as rice analogue (artificial rice) is a possible option to tackle this issue.Rice analogue or artificial rice imitates rice and resembles the quality of rice but is made from nonpaddy carbohydrates (Noviasari et al., 2017;Valencia & Purwanto, 2020). Rice analogue suits the dietary needs of a specific person and could improve vigor by delivering various bioactive compounds as well. The main ingredient of rice analogue could be flour obtained from crops such as cassava, sago, corn, and sorghum (Sumardiono et al., 2014). A recent study on

Myristicin, a potential toxicant, is a major ester present in the pericarp of nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) and alcohol acyltransferase (AAT) is responsible for its generation. The objective of the study was firstly to estimate the effect of blanching and pickling process on the inactivation of AAT and production of myristicin in nutmeg pericarp. Secondly, the effect of pickling process on the physical, microbial, antioxidant and sensory properties of nutmeg was evaluated. The nutmeg fruit pericarp was water-blanched for 0, 3, 5, 7 and 9 min. The increased blanching time significantly (p < 0.05) reduced the AAT activity (3.478 U/mg protein) compared to fresh nutmeg (39.034 U/mg protein). The reduction of myristicin was so efficient that it could not be detected after 9 min of blanching. Similarly, the pickling process significantly (p < 0.05) inhibited the AAT activity and lowered the myristicin content. However, the blanching significantly (p < 0.05) lowered the total phenol content and reduced the free radical scavenging capacity of pickled nutmeg (BP) when compared with commercial pickled nutmeg. Blanched pickled nutmeg (BP) presented the same color characteristics as of commercial one, although significant reduction in hardness was observed. No growth of yeast and mold was noticed for all the blanched pickled nutmeg. The sensory analysis data demonstrated that blanching up to 7 min maintained the overall acceptability of pickled nutmeg as of commercial pickled nutmeg. Thus, the study suggests that blanching and pickling treatment improved the quality of nutmeg effectively by inhibiting the AAT activity and reducing the myristicin content.

Low Temperature Vacuum Drying (LTVD) with induced nucleate boiling is a new method that has been invented to reduce the water content of honey at a lower temperature without damaging the nutrient content of honey. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of temperature on the dewatering rate by this LTVD method. The honey sample was placed in a pressure vessel and the air from the vessel was removed to create a vacuum condition. This experiment was conducted by using three different temperature which was 40 °C, 45 °C and 50 °C. The honey sample was dewatered for 5 minutes and each condition was repeated three times. The water content before and after the experiment was measured by a digital refractometer. Final water content decrease from 26.5 % to 25.1 % from temperature 40 °C to 50 °C. The dewatering rate increase from 0.14 %/min to 0.28 %/min when the temperature increase from 40 °C to 50 °C. The highest dewatering rate was obtained at 50 °C. However, considering the quality conservation of honey, it is suggested to apply a temperature of 45 °C to get a high dewatering rate while considering the quality of honey. It could be concluded that the temperature effect the final water content and dewatering rate of honey.

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