INFLUENCE OF CHICKEN EGGSHELL POWDER AS AN ALTERNATIVE COAGULANT ON THE YIELD AND TEXTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TOFU

Daily consumption of chicken eggs produces a vast number of eggshells byproducts which are a rich source of calcium salt. This paper investigated the potential of eggshell powder from eggshell byproducts as an alternative coagulant in the tofu preparation process. The eggshell powder was successfully obtained and analyzed with calcium salt (CaCO3) of 74.7% followed by calcium of 17.48%. Liquid nigari as a coagulant was evaluated and showed better tofu yield (143.24 ± 1.68 g/ 100 g) at 2% of addition to the soybean milk. The tofu prepared with 2% liquid nigari and 0.25% eggshell powder showed a higher yield (154.79 ± 3.56 g/100 g) as well as the improvement of texture profile of resulting tofu with hardness of 19.1 ± 2.02 N, cohesiveness of 0.26, and springiness of 13.5 ± 0.06 mm. The studied tofu was obviously observed to have better textural characteristics than two samples of tofu prepared by traditional methods. The result suggested that eggshell powder could be a promising alternative coagulant for tofu preparation.