Coconut Water – Innovative Products
Various strategies to improve quality of coconut water (CW) and diversify its products are discussed. Coconut is typically plucked and harvested using conventional methods that result in physical damage after the nuts fall onto the ground. This causes the release of various enzymes that initiate undesirable biochemical changes that continue to progress during processing and storage. Promising innovation to prevent quality loss due to conventional harvesting include the use “climbing machine”, even though a new method that gently transfers the nuts from tree top to the ground is desirable to reduce physical damage that leads to the initiation of deterioration. Cutting edge companies have also developed planting materials that yield more fruits when the trees are low and the nuts are within reach. In food science laboratories, new products that are still under development include freeze-concentrated CW, CW hydrogels, CW jelly and CW rehydration fluids. Meanwhile, more work is needed in the area of quality control to facilitate quality management of CW during manufacturing. In conclusion, other than process and product development, more sciences are needed to develop methods of CW authentication, so that fairer trading among countries that export and import CW can be promoted.