Banana flour as fillers in making tomato paste

Tomatoes are one of the horticultural crops that have high potential value in Indonesia. Statistics of the Ministry of Industry in 2016 shows that tomato sauce is an import commodity worth the US $ 1284 thousand and exports worth the US $ 863 thousand. The raw material for making tomato sauce is tomato paste. Tomato paste is an intermediate product that commonly uses fillers in the form of corn starch which is a lot of imported commodities, CMC, or xanthan gum. This filler can be replaced with other types of carbohydrates that have abundant amounts in Indonesia, including banana flour. Banana flour is one ingredient that can be used as an alternative filler of tomato paste. Both bananas and tomatoes are two commodities that have low prices during the main harvest. This study aims to determine the concentration of banana flour that is suitable for use in making tomato paste. This study uses a completely randomized design (CRD) with the addition of banana flour treatment consisting of 5 levels, namely 0 %, 1%, 2%, 3%, and 4%. The results showed that the addition of banana flour could increase the total dissolved solids, density, and viscosity of tomato paste. The addition of banana flour did not affect the pH of tomato paste. In addition, the addition of banana flour can reduce the value of brightness and redness in tomato paste.