PDF《INTO THE MARKET》

IJRRAS

15 (2) May

2013 www.

arpapress.com/Volumes/Vol15Issue2/IJRRAS_15_2_16.pdf

269 INTRODUCING A NEW NATURAL PRODUCT FROM DRAGON FRUIT INTO THE MARKET Nazli Moshfeghi1 , Omid Mahdavi2 , Fatemeh Shahhosseini3 , Shaghayegh Malekifar4 &

Seyedeh Khadijeh Taghizadeh5 1,

2 Master of Business Administration, Multimedia University, Malaysia

3 Institute of Biological Science, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Malaysia

4 Faculty of Management &

HRD, UniversitiTeknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia

5 School of Management, UniversitiSains Malaysia, Malaysia Corresponding email: taghizadeh.nastaran@gmail.com HP: +6

017 278

0960 ABSTRACT Natural source of food additives play prominent role in improvinghuman health conditions. However, importance and application of these additives have been widely neglected in food industry and its sub sectors. This paper is aimed to introduce Dragon FruitColoring Powder named (DFCP) as a natural food additive using dragon fruit albedo. It is expected to be tremendously healthy and attractive especially for consumer, since, dragon fruit is an edible fruit with water-soluble fiber and has high source of vitamin C.The albedo of dragon fruit was dried using conventional method to color rice, milk, yoghurt, juice, and pastry. Developing DFCP as the natural food colorants is not only healthy for human body, but also is friendly for society and environment. DFCPis estimated to be cost effective, as it is sourced from the only disposable part (peel) of the fruit. Further, since process of DFCPpreparation does not affect the natural benefit of dragon fruit, the original nutritional values of the fruit will still be preserved. Keywords: Dragon Fruit Coloring Powder, Natural food additive, Albedo, Consumer health. Abbreviation: DFCP = Dragon Fruit Coloring Powder. 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Dragon Fruit As A Natural Food Colorant Recently, consumers are more concerned about their health rather than price of the products they use, since they are more knowledgeable and aware about the product in today'

s market [3]. Unfortunately, there are an unlimited number of products, which remarkably affect the human immune system and health. Synthetic food coloring, as an example, is used as a food additive, only to make the food attractive in order to get higher price in the market. Many business practitioners invest on making synthetic food coloring as a food additive and introducing it to the market to attract consumers. Traditionally, people use natural food coloring, which had been obtained from nature. Romans used turmeric, saffron, various flowers petals, paprika and beet extracts as yellow, red, etc. colors into various foods that significantly help the vitality of health. But now, as people are using more synthetic food coloring,scientists are expressing their cautiousness in this regard [1]. According to the report fromCenter for Science in the Public Interest, some food colorings have been banned in U.S. In the beginning of the 20th century, numerous synthetic food additives had been produced, although there were only few synthetic colors approved to be used[11]. Since, the banned items have been identified as being potential cancer-causing chemicals. According to FDA, since

1955 the trend of synthetic food consumption has been stronger in Europe than the United States, with a remarkable five-fold increase in consumption of synthetic colors [cited in 11].There is also a significant growth in consumption of synthetic food additives in U.S. started from only

10 percent per capita per day (mg) in