The Profile of Pempek as a Determining Factor of Quality, Originality and Ethnicity

Pempek is a traditional ethnic food originated from Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia. Currently, there is not exist any profiles which could be used as a determining factor for quality, originality, and ethnicity of pempek. The objective of this research was to obtain the chemical profile of pempek as a determining factor of quality, originality and ethnicity. The samples were collected from the ten famous branded vendors in Palembang. The fish used in making pempek of the samples are snake head fish, Spanish mackerel, and the mix of snake head and Spanish mackerel. The type of pempek used in this experiment was steamed cook pempek lenjer (cylindrical) type. The analysis was performed at a KAN accredited laboratory. It was found that the energy content of pempek used in this experiment was in the range of 125 to 160 kkal/100 g sample and all the pempek used had a 0% of fat. All pempek used had 17 types of amino acid, and all of them had an essential amino acid. The significant finding was that the concentration of glutamic acid was 200% of the concentration of common concentration which indicated that all the vendors used artificial mono-sodium glutamate to improve the taste of pempek. It was concluded that the chemical profile found on this research could be used as database for creating a standard of identity of pempek.