Brilio.net/en - For many Indonesians, buying gudeg, which is a moist concoction of boiled jackfruit, palm sugar, tofu, beef skin, and chicken, is a must when visiting Yogyakarta. However, for those who have to endure longer haul flights or longer journeys, bringing a portion or two of gudeg may not be an option because this particular dish will deteriorate pretty quickly. Thats why some gudeg sellers in Yogyakarta are changing the game by coming up with canned gudeg.
One of them is Yayah, who packs the dish into cans to make it easier to carry and of course, making it last longer. However, a question about whether this canned gudeg is safe to be consumed was initially raised.
Yayah (26) told that packaging gudeg in a can cannot be done carelessly in order to maintain the quality and taste. The woman who has ran a canned gudeg business for 2 years said that she is now cooperating with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) to pack her products.
In LIPI, there are a lot of professors who have conducted researches about various types of cuisines from various ingredients. They also have the technology to make food last longer without using any preservatives and bacteria-free. Thats why we are working together to make use of this facility, said Yayah to brilio.net/en some time ago.
Yayah explained, she finishedmaking gudeg, she immediately takes them to aLIPI factory in Wonosari, Yogyakarta for further processing. After its packed into a can, it will be steamed for 15 minutes before being pressed and closed. Afterwards, all cans will enter an autoclave machine which has been set to a certain temperature for 30 minutes to kill bacterias.
The process is continued by putting the canned gudeg into a liquid containing chlorine to ensure the packaging or cans to not be damaged. The whole process usually takes less than 5 hours, before all the packaged gudeg are taken into a sterile room. In the sterile room, these products will be quarantined for two weeks before they finally decide that the products are safe to be marketed.
Yayah also added that LIPI provides sterile cans for packaging if the producers have trouble findingthem. The most important factor is that the cans must be of good quality and they have to be coated by harmless anti-rust materials.