Rich in its distinctive sweetness, that's honey. This natural liquid produced by bees gathering nectar from flowers has long been recognized as an alternative food with a plethora of health benefits.

Honey is known to contain substances that are antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial, as well as a variety of other nutrients that are good for the body. It's no wonder that honey has been used as a means of traditional and alternative medicine to this day.

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, honey consumption in Indonesia surged rapidly in almost all regions. Its role as a functional food product with numerous benefits for boosting immunity made it highly sought after.

It was amid this surge in honey consumption that Dr. Ir. Anang Lastriyanto, M.Si from the Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Universitas Brawijaya (FTP UB), was inspired to further research powder honey processing technology in Indonesia. Anang saw that honey handling had not yet been seriously addressed among researchers, practitioners, or government policies.

The process of processing into powdered honey products has existed and its products are available in the community. However, Anang and his team from the Research and Community Service Institute (LPPM) UB developed a vacuum cooler device to process raw honey until it dries into a ready-to-serve powder form.

Through RISPRO LPDP funding for 3.5 years (from 2019 to 2023), the vacuum cooler created by Anang has a number of advantages. Among these, the most notable is the drying process that takes place at low temperatures and pressures, namely at 60 degrees and seven kilopascals (7 kPa). The use of low temperatures ensures the valuable contents in honey are preserved.

The first year of research focused on humidification, namely reducing the water content in liquid honey, as well as the evaporation process. Both resulted in a prototype of the vacuum cooler's working principle, which was applied in the second year of research to create technical equipment and integrated systems.

“This prototype was used to design an integrated process, namely pasteurization, then evaporation and cooling processes in a single series of equipment, thus saving energy, space, time, and costs,” explained Anang when met at the LPPM UB office in Malang.

The culmination of this research eventually produced an advanced device named vacuum cooler capable of performing four tasks at once in a single series of equipment, namely pasteurization, vacuum cooling, moisture reduction or evaporation, and finally, a foam removal tool.

The research on the 4 in 1 vacuum cooler is claimed to be the first in Indonesia to Anang's knowledge. This device can perform two outputs at once in the processing series of raw honey or for those who want to make it into powdered honey.

If you search for a vacuum cooler on Google or marketplaces, for example, similar devices have yet to be found. So far, honey vacuum coolers can be obtained by importing at a price that is still relatively high for home and medium industries. Powdered honey products themselves have been available in Indonesia before this research began. However, according to some studies, the honey content is claimed to be still low.

Therefore, Anang and his team hope that their product can be accepted in the market and be commercialized well in the future, including becoming a prototype for application to products other than honey.

“According to my analysis, these two outputs will have a wide impact on the honey processing industry at the grassroots level,” Anang said optimistically.

Ready for Sale and Applied to the Honey Industry

PT Brawijaya Smart Industry (PT BSI) was appointed as the research partner for the manufacture and commercialization of this honey vacuum cooler. In the third year of research, PT BSI entered and officially handled the production and commercialization process of the research results. This startup operates in the field of food processing equipment fabrication such as vacuum frying, spinners, honey evaporators, and so on.

Sasongko Aji Wibowo, CEO of PT BSI, saw that this research product has commercial potential because several products and uses are not yet available on the market.

“The benefits of this technology are very many, especially first in the field of education or education. Many campuses in Indonesia do not yet have lab-scale vacuum cooling technology. There are also vacuum ovens that are not widely available. This becomes our market opportunity to sell or meet the needs of these devices for commercialization.”

The price of the equipment produced by PT BSI varies, starting from 10 million for a dehumidifier, 20 million for lab-scale vacuum cooling, 50 million for lab-scale vacuum ovens, mini plant scale vacuum cooling at 750 million, and other custom jobs for larger capacities.

Powdered honey making equipment can currently be found and purchased through the e-catalog page of the Government Goods/Services Procurement Policy Agency (LKPP) or on e-commerce. PT BSI is also ready to serve orders for custom powdered honey making equipment, both separately and as a complete package.

They have stated their readiness to produce equipment on a mini-plan scale. Moreover, this research equipment has also been applied in one of the famous honey manufacturing factories, PT. Madu Kembang Joyo Sriwijaya, based in Malang, East Java.

This company, with the motto "Scientific Beekeeping," has been reputable since 1998 and has a good reputation. Kembang Joyo currently has more than 200 branch stores in Indonesia and supplies many drug stores and supermarkets, including exports.

Currently, there are 20 honey products at Kembang Joyo that use the 4 in 1 vacuum cooler equipment. Along with the old equipment that Kembang Joyo has owned, these dozens of liquid honey products have been aided in their production process, especially during the pasteurization stage.

It is known that raw honey harvested needs to go through a stage of yeast destruction and/or killing the enzyme that produces honey foam. Using the vacuum cooler, the pasteurization process can be carried out more precisely through the right and fast heating process.

This also proves the usefulness of this research because it can support the production of other liquid honeys, especially in the pasteurization process. Meanwhile, the commercialization of powdered honey products is still in the stage of obtaining licenses by the research partner.

Kembang Joyo received a set of vacuum coolers in the second year of research or in 2022. The research partner also played a role in supporting this research by making several adjustments, such as providing electricity of 6600 VA and clean water, training human resources for their workers, to handling a number of product outcome licenses.

The vacuum cooler 4 in 1 research involved collaboration between three campuses at once, namely Universitas Brawijaya, Universitas Mataram, and Universitas Pattimura, with two appointed partners, PT BSI and PT Madu Kembang Joyo. The total research funding from RISPRO LPDP used was 4.5 billion rupiah.

Not to forget, Anang, as the head of the research team, thanked RISPRO LPDP, which through #OurMoney has supported the advancement of national research for the people of Indonesia.

“I would like to thank RISPRO LPDP for funding, accompanying, and providing guidance so that our research went as hoped according to the program that had been planned. Besides, we hope the results of this research can be useful for the wider community. Thank you,” concluded Anang.