Textural Properties of Coconut Meat: Implication on the Design of Fiber Extraction and Coconut Processing Equipment

Abstract

The textural properties of coconut meat such as punching force, cutting force, punching energy, and cutting energy are the salient parameters for the efficient and ergonomic design of the fiber extraction machine and processing equipments such as coconut chips slicing machine and grating machine. As literature on these textural properties of coconut meat is limited, our study analyzed these textural properties at three different positions viz. eye, middle and bottom position of 9, 10, and 11 months maturity old Malayan Yellow Dwarf (MYD), Malayan Orange Dwarf (MOD), and Chowghat Orange Dwarf (COD) cultivars. Statistical analysis revealed that cultivar, maturity and loading position are the major factors that significantly affect the textural properties of coconut meat. MOD was reported to be the toughest cultivar followed by MYD and COD. The amount of force and energy needed to punch and cut the coconut meat was found to increase with maturity (11 months> 10 months> 9 months) and loading position (bottom section > middle section > eye section), respectively. The highest punching force was observed for the meat of cultivar MOD of 11 months maturity with 18.41 ± 1.53 N, 36.70 ± 5.72 N, and 39.12 ± 6.65 N for the eye, middle and the bottom sections, respectively. The highest punching and cutting energy of 168.89 ± 7.37 J and 254.21 ± 28.14 J was documented for MOD cultivar of 11 months maturity, at the bottom section.

Keywords

• mechanical properties
• fiber extraction
• coconut chips slicing machine
• cutting and punching force
• cutting and punching energy