Consumer Acceptability of Special Wafer Made from Pregelatinized

Cassava Flour

Winda Haliza

, Ayu Kusuma

, Endang Yuli Purwani

and I. Putu Wardana

Balai Besar Penelitian dan Pengembangan Pascapanen Pertanian,

Jl. Tentara Pelajar No. 12, Cimanggu, Bogor 16114, Indonesia

Pusat Penelitian dan Pengembangan Tanaman Pangan, Jalan Merdeka 147 Bogor 16111, Indonesia

Keywords: Wafer, Pregelatinized, Cassava Flour, Gluten-free, Market Research.

Abstract: The identification of key extrinsic (marketing) and the intrinsic (sensory) product is important in new gluten-

free food development to know consumer acceptance. Involving the consumer in the process of developing

and marketing gluten-free foods through market research provides a more systematic means of managing

consumer knowledge. The objective of this research was to assess consumers’ interest and acceptability

toward new products “Special Wafer Made from Pregelatinized Cassava Flour”. The online survey was

applied to consumers using google forms and the respondents were distributed randomly. Results revealed

that the respondent's age was 39 years old on average, more than 70% of respondent desperately needed

healthy snacks for their daily life with specific nutritional content. Less sugar, gluten-free, and good taste also

greatly affected the willingness to pay for the product. When combined with a specific flavor the consumer

would like to pay more. Also, the potential market of this product could be broadened not only for those

people with a health problem such as celiac diseases but also for those people with a healthy lifestyle.

1 INTRODUCTION

Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is one type of native

tuber from Indonesia. As third staple food after rice

and corn (Murniati et al., 2020), cassava productivity

in various regions in Indonesia (2012 to 2016)

increases on average by 2.85%, and the production

reached 22.819,484 tons in the same period (Nuryati

et al., 2016). This fact proved that Indonesia is the

largest cassava producer in Asia, with a production

rate of 44 kg per capita per year compared to 37.3 kg

of the regional average (Howeler et al., 2013).

Cassava is considered inferior because of its

presentation as ready-to-eat food less attractive and

perishable (Hariyadi, 2011). Cassava flour has the

potential to be used as a substituent of flour in making

bakery products.

For wider utility, the cassava flour needs to be

modified to become more flexible than the existing

cassava flour through the pre-gelatinization of starch.

Starch gelatinization is a physical process of breaking

down the intermolecular bonds of starch molecules in

the presence of water and heat, allowing the hydrogen

bonding sites (the hydroxyl hydrogen and oxygen) to

engage more water. This irreversibly dissolves the

starch granule in water. Water acts as a plasticizer

(Niba et al., 2006).

A physical modification was carried out in the

cassava through a heating process close to the

gelatinization temperature (70-80 degrees Celsius)

under conditions of limited water content. The flour

showed high quality in terms of fine texture and

bright colors. Pregelatinized cassava flour was the

newest innovation of the IAARD (BB Pascapanen,

2017).

Nowadays, a wafer is a popular snack in

Indonesia. The application of cassava flour in wafer

products would have a bigger impact on people with

health problems such as celiac disease (Fasano &

Catassi, 2012) and healthy lifestyles.

The identification of key extrinsic (marketing)

and the intrinsic (sensory) product is important in new

gluten-free food development to know the consumer

acceptance Involving the consumer in the process of

developing and marketing gluten-free foods through

market research provides more systematic means of

managing consumer knowledge. The objective of this

research was to assess consumers’ interest and

acceptability toward new products “Special Wafer

Made from Pregelatinized Cassava Flour”.

Haliza, W., Kusuma, A., Purwani, E. and Wardana, I.

Consumer Acceptability of Special Wafer Made from Pregelatinized Cassava Flour.

DOI: 10.5220/0010529600003108

In Proceedings of the 6th Food Ingredient Asia Conference (6th FiAC 2020) - Food Science, Nutrition and Health, pages 88-91

ISBN: 978-989-758-540-1

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The online survey was applied to consumers using google

forms.

The consumers were selected randomly and

invited to provide their preference for these products.

Also, the secondary data including scientific papers

such as journals, proceedings, annual reports, and

books were reviewed. Both qualitative and

quantitative approaches were applied. The qualitative

approach was carried out to have an in-depth analysis

of understanding the knowledge and perception of

customers and related stakeholders of pregelatinized

cassava flour and value chain. The quantitative

approach was used to evaluate the product properties.

3 RESULTS

Most respondent (42%) was living in Bogor, followed

by Jakarta (12.5%), and other cities such as Surabaya,

Lampung, Sukabumi, Palu, Malang, and Semarang.

The proportion of female and male respondents was

52.5% and 47.5%, respectively (Table 1).

The respondents with >39 years old dominated the

survey (70%), followed by the age of 24-39 years, 19-

23 years, and <19 years with percentages of 22.5%,

5%, and 2.5%, respectively. Most of the respondents

were civil servants (37.5%), followed by private

employees and self-employed (at 22.5%), and

students (7.5%). A total of 45% of respondents have

income of IDR 5,000,000 - 10,000,000. Then, the rest

have income of 1,000,000-5,000,000 (30%) and

10,000,000 (20%). The respondents' activity in social

media was varied, about 20% of respondents were

very active on social media, followed by active

(27.5%), quite active (37.5%), and not active at all

(15%).

Table 1: The characteristics of the respondent.

Characteristic

of respondent

Percentage

Male 52.5%

Female 47.5%

Age

70%

(>39)

23%

(24-39)

(19-23)

(10-18)

Monthly

income (IDR)

45%

(5.000K-

10.000K)

30%

(1.000K-

5.000K)

20%

(>10.000K)

(<1.000K)

The respondents' perceptions of the nutritional

value of wafer products were important. Most

respondents were aware of the important nutrients

(i.e. vitamins, antioxidants, calcium, less sugar, and

gluten-free) but fewer respondents have disagreed

with a gluten-free - non-dairy wafer (Figure 1). The

best knowledge was expressed by people of >39 years

old, followed by 24-39 years old. Healthy snacks such

as healthy wafers were also very popular. Almost all

age groups were agreed that healthy wafer contained

high nutritional value and important as healthy food.

Figure 1: The awareness of respondents to nutrition value.

All respondents have experience in consuming

wafers. The frequency of wafer product consumption

was dominated by 1-3 times/month, followed by

several times/year and once/week (Table 2). More

consumers like the wafer product with chocolate and

thick wafer.

Table 2: Character habits of subjects.

Specific factors that contribute to the selection of

products, like quality, sensory properties, packaging,

brand, price, special properties, and net weight, have

been classified as “not at all important”, “slightly

important”, “important”, “rather important” or

“extremely important” for the buying decision

process. Product quality and sensory properties were

perceived as “extremely important” by all subjects,

regardless of age. All subjects rate was rated as

“important” when making buying decisions. The

brand was “important” or “fairly important” for

everyone, as the price and packaging. The effect of

special properties has been classified as “important”

or “extremely important” by all subjects regardless of

age (Figure 2).

Character habits of subjects Decision Share (%)

Frequency of consumption of wafer products Every day 0%

1-3 times/week 1%

Once/week 21%

1-3 times/month 45%

Once/month 10%

Several times/year 23%

Consumption of wafer products Yes 100%

No 0%

Consumer preference; flavoured wafer products Chocolate 36%

Vanila 28 %

Strawbery 19%

Cheesy/salty/sovory 17%

Varian wafer products Thin 48%

Thick 53%

Consumer Acceptability of Special Wafer Made from Pregelatinized Cassava Flour

Figure 2: The importance of specific factors influencing

food purchasing decisions.

Based on the public perception, the special wafers

(wafers with additional functional value) were highly

appreciated by the market. The respondent gave high

enough points to this product (score of 4-5) and this

indicated that the respondents agreed or extremely

agree. Besides, the consumers would willing to pay

more if the special wafers were combined with an

acceptable taste. Approximately 80% of respondents

thought that a special wafer would have an excellent

selling value, and 75% of respondents predicted that

a special wafer would have a good target market

(Figure 3). The percentage of respondents willing to

buy wafers at Rp. 2000-3000 per pack was 35%,

followed by at Rp. 1000-2000 per pack (20%), and at

a price of less than Rp. 1000 (7.5%).

Figure 3: Respondents perception of the special wafer.

The new wafer products have been described into

5 sensory properties (i.e. appearance, aroma, texture,

taste, and overall categories). The aroma of the wafer

sheets and the filling of special wafer products were

characterized. The filling was uniform and spread

evenly between wafer sheets. The aroma was medium

sweet with a distinctive smell of flavor. No cassava

flavor was present. Also, the product was not tough

texturally and have ideal chewiness (Figure 4).

Figure 4: The sensory profile of the new products.

Most segments of consumer age preferred new

wafer products made from pregelatinized cassava

flour, except for those over 39 years old and 10-18

years old (Figure 5).

Figure 5: The consumer preferences for special wafer.

4 CONCLUSIONS

More than 70% of respondents desperately needed

healthy snacks for their daily lives with specific

nutritional content. Less sugar, gluten-free, and good

taste also greatly affected the willingness to pay for

the product. When combined with a specific flavor

the consumer would like to pay more. Also, the

potential market of this product could be broadened

not only for those people with health problems such

as celiac diseases but also for those people with a

healthy lifestyle.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors owe thanks to PT INFIAD Indonesia and

PT Javaindo Maju Makmur for their support in

supplying “pregel” cassava flour and wafer

production, and also to finance Ministry to funding

this study through RISPRO-LPDP.

6th FiAC 2020 - The Food Ingredient Asia Conference (FiAC)

REFERENCES

BB Pascapanen. 2017. Pengembangan Teknologi Tepung

Ubikayu Termodofikasi Untuk Substitusi Terigu.

Laporan Akhir Kegiatan

Fasano, A., & Catassi, C. (2012). Celiac disease. The New

England Journal of Medicine, 367, 2419–2426.

https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMcp1113994

Hariyadi, H. (2011). Teknologi modifikasi tepung kasava.

Agritech, 31(2), 86–92. https://doi.org/10.22146/

agritech.9730

Howeler, R., Lutaladio, N., & Thomas, G. (2013). Save and

grow: Cassava – a guide to sustainable production

intensification. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Murniati, K., Widjaya, S., Adawiyah, R., & Listiana, I.

(2020). Cassava production and food security of

cassava farmers’ household, Lampung, Indonesia.

Plant Archives, 20 (Supplement 2), 1764–1768.

Niba, L., Bokanga, M., Jackson, F., Schlimme, D., & Li, B.

(2006). Physicochemical properties and starch granular

characteristics of flour from various Manihot esculenta

(cassava) genotypes. Journal of Food Science, 67(5),

1701–1705. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2621.2002.

tb08709.x

Nuryati, L., Waryanto, B., & Akbar, A. (2016). Outlook:

Komoditas SubSektor Tanaman Pangan - Ubi Kayu.

Ministry of Agriculture, Republic of Indonesia.

Consumer Acceptability of Special Wafer Made from Pregelatinized Cassava Flour