Assessment on Viability of Ampalaya as Alternative Ingredients in Making Empanada Crust

Abstract

Food is very important to everyone, especially for growing children. Nutrition is the process by which you take in and assimilate the right amount of nutrients to keep you healthy and strong. With proper nutrition, you will have protein and carbohydrates that you need to fuel your active lifestyle. Empanada with the ampalaya mixture is a type of pastry food made of blend ampalaya combined with pork. It can decrease cardiovascular risk and also has dietary fiber. It helps metabolize homocysteine, which is an amino acid that can accumulate toxic levels. It is acceptable to the students because the taste is good, and it has a crunchy crust. The methods used by the researchers were the experimental method, survey questionnaire method, and a simple random sampling technique. The investigation was conducted in Bestlink College of the Philippines in December 2019. The questionnaire served as the instrument for collecting the data. The respondents included 50 students and 10 teachers. The results showed that 57.4%of the students and 62.6% of the teachers agreed that our product is delicious in terms of taste. Meanwhile, in terms of the aroma of our product,56.4%of the students and all teachers agreed about the acceptability of the product. In terms of nutritional value, 72.4% of the students strongly agreed that our product is rich in vitamins, while 94% of the teachers very strongly agreed. In terms of competitiveness, 73.4% of students and 89% of teachers strongly agreed that our product can compete in the market. Lastly, in terms of presentation,65.6% of the students and 66.8% of the teachers agreed that our product has a pleasing appearance. The difference between the assessments of students and teachers was significant. In conclusion, the product is marketable because it is budget-friendly mostly to students. Some of the respondents said that our product was good and smelled great; the aroma almost influences its taste. The respondents said that we need to improve the taste slightly. Some of the respondents said that it has an after taste, and few said that ampalaya did not mix well with pork.