“I choose spinach chips!” The title above was expressed by Septyn Sihombing. She’s studying at Yogyakarta Technology University, majoring English Literature with a concentration in business so one of the courses is entrepreneurship. One task of the course is producing a product and marketing it. Septyn and her group chose a spinach-based product as the main ingredient. This idea emerged from Stube HEMAT Yogyakarta's activities regarding food diversity, food processing, and entrepreneurial ideas. In this activity, participants learn not only to recognize the food potencies in their surroundings but also to develop creativity as income.
"I chose spinach chips as a snack product to be promoted because spinach has many benefits, especially for health, familiar to the public and affordable. "The snack product is commonly consumed by various people groups, so it is not only delicious but nutritious for the body," she explained. Several genus of spinach are often found in Indonesia, each with its own characteristics: 1) Amaranthus viridis has broad but small leaves, green stems, and reddish-green flowers, and the seeds are easy to pick. 2) Amaranthus dubius has small and short leaves, green and red leaves, the stems have small spines in the leaf axils, and the flowers are green. 3). Amaranthus palmeri has dark green leaves of medium size, dark green stems, and dark green flowers, but has the highest nutrition. 4) Amaranthus hybridus, a natural cross of red and green spinach, has large green leaves with clustered flowers. 5) Amaranthus cruentus, red spinach, has red leaf surfaces and greenish on the reverse surface.
Spinach chips can be an alternative snack because they have several advantages, namely first, snack lovers not only consume snacks but also get nutrition from spinach; second, this spinach chips product does not use MSG; third, spinach chips are suitable as an alternative snack with the right packaging size when traveling and it is edible any time; and fourth, spinach chips have a long expiration date of several months.
There are some challenges faced in the production process, such as the dough is too runny or too dry because we are still looking for the right ingredients, the manual rolling process using hands with a wooden roll, and molding the dough into triangles using a knife. If the dough is too hard it will be difficult to achieve the right thickness, and the spinach chips will not be well cooked, whereas if the dough is too soft it will be difficult to lift and will break easily because it sticks to the base, so you have to re-mold it. Apart from that, the heat of the fire when frying also determines the level of doneness and color of the chips.
The spinach chips were marketed during a student expo held on campus. The consumers responded well to spinach chips. They are interested and enthusiastic to buy them because they are uniquely made from spinach, with their various flavors available, such as sweet corn and balado, besides the original taste.
Septyn emphasized that in the work field, everyone must prepare his/her self-confidence, ability, and creativity, taking part in an internship or part-time work programs that are relevant to field of study, including building networks through seminars, workshops or other events that can help to connect with people in your field of interest. Come on, young people, start recognizing your abilities and make breakthroughs! ***
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