Flour substitute from coconut

Title

Creator

Torres, P. E.

Jiao, Rosita

Gilbuena, Teodora

Language

English

Year

1941

Subject

Wheat products—Philippines

Coconut flour—Philippines

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

Among the necessary imports that would be difficult to secure in case of blockade is wheat flour. We import annually around 107 million kilos of flour valued at nine million pesos. The Philippines do not grow wheat from which we can manufacture wheat flour. A substitute for wheat flour in necessary if the local demand is to be supplied. Locally, there are several materials from which flour substitute can be made, such as casava, corn, camote, ete. Comparatively speaking, there is very little area devoted to the growing of these starch bearing materials, and before a large scale production of flour substitute from these materials can be made possible, an extensive agricultural development will also have to be made.

Fulltext

Flour Substitute From Coconut By P. E. Torres, Rosita Jiao and T eodora Gil buena Bu1·eau of Science A r the present time there exists a great shortage of bottoms for both our exports and imports. Only the very essential materials could be assured of being shipped. Although the Philippines is capable of producing the products for foreign and domestic consumption, she can not be so sure that all these products can be brought at once to the countries that need them. The same case exists with regards to our imports. With this view in mind, there arise pro blems of producing the products which we could hard ly secure from abroad under the present circums tances. If, producing these needed products would not be profitable, then the problem resolves on how we can produce substitute for them. Among the necessary imports that would be dif ficult to secure in case of blockade is wheat flour. We import annually around 107 million kilos of flour valued at nine million pesos .. The Philippines do not grow wheat from which we can manufacture wheat flour. A substitute for wheat flour in necessary if the local demand is to be supplied. Locally, there are several materials from which flour substitute can be made, such as casava, corn, camote, etc. Compara tively speaking, there is very little area devoted to the growing of these starch bearing materials, and be fore a large scale production of flour substitute from these materials can be made possible, an extensive agricultural development will also have to be made. Flour from the Coconut The coconut, termed appropriately as the Tree of Life can furnish us a good material from which a flour substitute can he derived. AlthoMgh Filipino, Dutch, American, and i!:nglish investigators have men tioned and studied coconut flour in their respective publications, its commercial possibilities ·have not been thoroughly discussed. Extensive work on the nutritive value of the constituents of fresh coconut meat have already been done. This has been compiled and explained by Miss Orosa of the Bureau of Plant Industry in her article in the September issue of this Journal. From the pilot plant in the Bureau of Science, coconut f lour has been pro'Uuced, and this has been used in conjunction with other local flour materials in making broad, cookies and cakes. Seve ral investigators ( 1) in Ceylon and the East Indies proved that the flour produced from coconut meat is nutritious, and as a result, coconut flour is being in corporated in the daily diet. Basing on all these known experimental facts, it can be safely stated that coconut flour would make a good flour substitute. It is the purpose of this short art icle to discuss the man ufacture of coconut flour. Methods of Manufacture The analysis of fresh coconut meat is shown in Table I. This table shows that, if the oil and the water are taken out from the meat, the remammg residue will consist mostly of protein and carbohy drates, the primary constituents of flour. The above mentioned Ceylon investigators prepared their coco nut flour by pressing out the oil from desiccated co conut. The analysis of this flour is shown in column 2, Table I. The process of making flour by this me thod is costly because one has to make desiccated co conut first before he can make the coconut flour. Table !-Comparative Analysis of Coconut and Wheat Flours 1 2 3 4 5 Fresh Coconut Ceylon Roller- Continuous Wheat Flour (Ave) Meat Coco Flour Expeller Press Moisture .... Ether Extract Proteins ..... Crude Fiber Carbohydrates etc . ..... . Minerals .... . 48.0 35.5 4.3 2.1 9.0 1.1 (From desic· Coco Flour Coco Flour cated (Lava (Lava coconut) process) process) 5.7 6.0 6.0 7.2 5.0 6.0 20.4 11.6 4.3 9.2 14.7 18.3 52.1 5.4 60.3 2.4 64.4 1.0 12.0 1.0 11.4 1.0 74.1 0.5 The new Lava process of making oil and coco milk directly from fresh meat yields a coconut meat residue from which most of the oil has been ex tracted, and from which flour can easily be made. The making of flour from this residue may be ac complished by two methods. As was mentioned in a previous article, (2) the new process involves the ex traction of the "gata" or liquid emulsion from the meat. This may be effected either by (1) roller press expeller-hydraulic press process or by (2) a con tinuous roller press method. In the first method the ground meat is passed through a roller press to se perate the liquid emulsion from the meat residue. At this stage most of the oil and sugars in the fresh meat are extracted. The "sapal" or meat residue is dried in a continuous drier of the type used in the preparation of desiccated coconut. The dried "sapal" is fed into an expeller in order to take out the re maining oil. From the expeller or hydraulic press the "sapal" is passed through a pulverizer which re duces the size of the particles to that of flour. North cutt, in a patented process claimed that the dried co conut meat could be ground in a high speed hammer mill to produce a product which can be emulsified (please turn to page 19) ( t) Do·. Reginald Child. Director of Research. Coconut Reseao·ch Scheme discussed . the food value of the products obtained from the coconut Kernel in the July, ln39 issue of Young Ceylon (Coconut Number). C. P . . Jansen made a comrHehensive study on the nutritive v::tlue of coconut presscake and his findings which were published in 1\fede rleelingen Burgea·lijken Geneeskundigen Dienst in Nederlandsch-lndie ( l!l20) pp. 1-21. showed that the presscake can be used as human food in case of emergency (2) The Commercial Possibility of the Lava Process-From the Standpoint of Machinery and Equipment by P. E. Torres. Cocouut Journal, March, 1!)4\. PAGE 11 OCTOBER, 1941 FLOUR SUBSTITUTE. (Continued from page 11) easily in water. The analysis of the coconut flour obtained by the roller-expeller method is shown in col umn 3, Table I. In the continuous roller press method, the fresh coconut meat is passed through a set of rollers to achieve the maximum extraction of oil. The meat residue from these rollers is dried in a continuous drier and then ground to flour particle si:.:e in a pulverizer. The analysis of this flour is shown in column 4, Ta ble I. Flowsheet in Fig. I illustrate the two methods. Increasing Coconut Income . The ma �1Ufacture of coconut flour is one way by which the mcome from coconuts can be increased. Whe :eas, the meat residue from the copra method of 01! manufacture has been sold as fertilizer and cattle feed, the coconut flour from either of the two methods mentioned above will be sold as human food thereby commanding a better price. Furthermore ' unlike the ordinary copra cake, we need not seek � foreign market to dispose of the coconut flour as it will replace wheat flour in its uses. We canno t over look the fact that in the near future we will have to find �ays to replace our dwindling stock of imported m �ter1als. When that time comes, the coconut flour WJII be of great help in relieving the difficult situa tion caused by the shortage of foreign flour. (Fig. 1-Fiowsheets Showing the Methods of Coconut Flour .Manufacture) Coconut meat I Grinder Roller press I ",c1apal" Skimmed milk Drier I EJ·pl'l/cr or Hydraulic press I Pulwrizer I Coco flour to Pa(·king Scction LA CORPORACION NACIONAL. (Contiuwrciou de frr pn!lillll 17) Creo que si fabriciisemos vasitos con ese deri vado del t•oco, pam ser vendidos a precios popula res en nue stro men·ado, los muchos vasos de cristal que han roto mis niiws podrian ser sustituidos con lo llUI'Stro, que es mas fuerte y duradero. Hasta t>l a�ua t•eft•et;cnnte que da el /Juco que b';'bemos en Ia epOCH de caJOI', bien pl'l'Sl'ntada, l'OilSCI'\'ada y pre parada por un �ran establecimiento de bebidas re fretlcantetl c omo Ia 1\lagnolia, encontraria una se lecta parroquia , aparte de Ia �ente del pueblo. Esto ya va resultando un poco largo, ami�os, y deseo dar punto final a este sermon sobre el evan gelio del coco y sus nccesorios, recordando de nuevo In frase humoristica puesta por el novelista Sinclair Coconut meat I I Grinder I Roller press I I I Sa pal Skimmed milk Roller press I I ( Sapal ) Roller press I I (Sapal) I Brier I Pulverizer I Coco flour to Packing Section Skim l ed milk Skimmed milk en bot"a de un fabricante de carne en conservas de ChicajXO, para subrayar Ia eficiencia de los metodos industriales: '"Aqui no desperdiciamos ni el chillido cte un cerdo que va al matadero." Si pi!dier<tmos de c ir to mismo con el tiempo en lo que se refiere a Ia industria cocalera, el Estado, convertido hoy en empresario por Ia Corporaci6n N acional del Coco, vera recompensados sus afanes, aseguraudo el porvenir de las novecientas mil fa milias que dependen de esa industria lucrativa. PAGE 19

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