Acceptability of Value Added Products from Giant Swamp Taro (Cystosperma chamissonis) Corm

Abstract

Giant Swamp Taro “Cyrtosperma chamissonis” is a native plant in the Philippines. It can also be found in Bohol, Philippines especially in swampy coastal areas. It is used as food and is prepared in several ways like roasting, grating, or baking the corm whole. Giant Swamp Taro has traditionally been an important emergency crop in times of natural disaster and food scarcity. It is rich in calories, fibre, calcium, iron, zinc, β-carotene, thiamine and Vitamin C. This study ventured to produce T1- Taro Espasol with Young Buko, and T2- Taro Espasol with Peanuts; to determine its acceptability; and to promote the product to the rural community. This is an experimental study using parallel group design with sixty panelists assessing the product in six sensory attributes; appearance, texture or mouthfeel, cohesiveness, odor, taste and general acceptability, utilizing Hedonic Scale. It was found out that T2 or Giant Swamp Taro with peanuts ranked first in four sensory attributes; cohesiveness (tie with T0) - Crumbly, Odor - Very Pleasant, Taste - Moderately Palatable, and in General Acceptability-Very Much Acceptable. T2 ranked second in texture-Less Soft and third in Appearance - Very Attractive. On the other hand, T1 or Giant Swamp Taro with Young Buko got the highest in Appearance-Very Attractive, cohesiveness (tie with T2)- Crumbly, second in taste- Moderately Palatable, and in ‘general Acceptability- Very Much Acceptable and third in Texture and Mouthfeel- less soft, and odor - Very Pleasant. Meanwhile, T0 ranked first in texture and mouthfeel - less soft, second in appearance - Very Attractive, Odor - Very Pleasant and third in Cohesiveness - Crumbly, Taste - Moderately Palatable, and General Acceptability - Very Much Acceptable. It can be concluded that the three treatments of Giant Swamp Taro Espasol are generally acceptable. It is easy for the rural people to prepare the recipe since it is cooked using carajay and tools which are available in rural communities. Giant Swamp Taro flour can substitute glutinous rice in recipes.