Preliminary study of the nutritional aspects of fermented coconut meal

Abstract

Coconut residue, an agro-industrial by-product has limited use in fish feed due to its high fibre and low protein contents. In this study, the coconut meal was fermented by "tempe" (fermented soybean) which contains Rhizoporus oligosporus. The objective of this study is to investigate the potential of fermentation in improving the nutritional value of the coconut meal and to determine the optimum temperature for coconut meal fermentation. Fermentation was conducted at three temperatures which were 28 °C, 32 °C and 37 ° C. Packets that contain coconut meal were inoculated with "tempe" to induce fermentation. The ratio of inoculation of "tempe" to coconut meal is 1: I 0. The samples were collected everyday for proximate analysis until black spores were formed on the substrates. Results revealed that the optimum temperature for the fermenting coconut meal, in which its nutritional content is improved, is at 37 ° C. The crude protein and ash content of coconut meal were significantly increased by fermentation from 5.05 % and 1.56 %, to 17.36 % and 2.22 % respectively.