Tempeh is a traditional soy-based food and it is very popular among Malaysians and Indonesians. This food is a staple source of protein originated from Indonesia. Tempeh is made traditionally by a natural culturing and controlled fermentation process which is considered complicated and ticklish and normally takes about 2 to 3 days to be completed and ready to be served. The commonly traditional process also lacks hygiene and cleanliness which raise major issues in the production of tempeh. Thus, this study is undertaken to develop an automatic tempeh machine in order to overcome these issues. The machine is expected to reduce about 70% of the production time especially for packaging process and reduce 60% of the production costs and able to improve and increase productivity to more than 60% with better quality of tempeh. In addition, this machine also provides better hygiene due to the automated process as compared to manual methods that are subjected to substantial human handling. The developed machine includes all processes in tempeh production and requires only a small space for installation. The machine is also equipped with temperature controller in order to ascertain the process of fermentation as this is considered a very sensitive process. It was proven that by using the standard operation procedures (SOP), the automated tempeh machine is capable to produce similar quality and taste of tempeh as compared to those produced from the traditional process. At the same time avoiding the necessary skills and experience of the workers. This paper also discussed in detail the design and development of the automated tempeh production machine.
Volume 11 | Issue 5
Pages: 491-496