Sensorial properties of cooked rice samples from the Merauke Regency

Abstract

Rice cultivation in the Merauke Regency showed high productivity. In 2019, local farmers cultivated 11 rice varieties in the Semangga, Tanah Miring, and Malind districts. Post-harvest research was performed to check the quality and sensorial properties of the rice harvest. As a comparison, samples harvested from the Cilamaya district (West Java Province) were taken. The physicochemical assessment covered moisture content, head rice recovery, length, whiteness, apparent amylose content (AAC), and protein content (PC). The sensorial assessment was performed on cooked rice and the result was correlated to the physicochemical properties of rice through Partial Least Square (PLS) regression analysis. Increased AAC and reduced PC were observed on rice samples from the Merauke Regency. This, however, did not affect the texture and the aroma of the cooked rice samples. In general, cooked rice from the Merauke Regency resulted in a better sensory profile compared to the corresponding rice samples from the Cilamaya district. Moreover, most (15 out of 19) cooked rice samples from the Merauke Regency obtained the same sensory profile. A relatively high PC (7.92%) was possibly the driver for the cooked Membramo rice from the Semangga district for having a slightly glossy appearance and obtaining a score of 3 (neither liked nor disliked) for general acceptance while the majority of samples were glossy and scored 2 (liked) for general acceptance. The Inpari 42 rice from the Cilamaya district displayed the highest PC (11.12%) and the lowest whiteness (35.40%). The cooked Inpari 42 rice from this district, unsurprisingly, was slightly white and obtained a score of 3 (neither liked nor disliked) for general acceptance. These results indicated that PC played a great role in determining the sensorial properties of cooked rice samples from Merauke.