Mland Milk, White Leadtree Milk Invented by IPB University Students

Indonesia as a country owning high biodiversity, has abundant food potential. However, the potential of local food source is rarely used, even almost forgotten. One of them is white leadtree (locally known as 'mlanding') seeds, which are usually used to make tempeh (mlanding tempeh) that has high nutritional content. In addition to soybeans, the seeds of this tree could also be used as an ingredient to make a non-dairy milk, a nutrient-dense vegetable-based drink.

Three IPB University students from the Department of Community Nutrition, Faculty of Human Ecology (Fema), namely Tiffany Kusuma, Julina, and Salsabila Nadien created an innovative product called Mland Milk as an alternative milk with high protein and nutritional content. It was made of mlanding tempeh using various formulas. The idea was outlined in the Student Creativity Program in Research (PKM-P) entitled "Mland-Milk: Non-Dairy Milk with High Protein and Omega 3 from Mlanding Tempeh, the Forgotten Source of Protein" under the supervision of Dr. arg. Eny Palupi, STP, MSc from the Department of Community Nutrition, Faculty of Human Ecology, IPB University.

According to Tiffany, the team leader, the high nutritional content and benefits of milk are very potential to be developed but domestic milk production is still very low. "Whereas, local foods could be used as an alternative to milk. One of them is white leadtree. We are interested in analyzing the nutritional content of vegetable-based milk which is made of this tree's seeds through fermentation process," she said. Adding walnuts to milk products was also done to enrich the nutritional content of the milk.

Based on the results of the study, one hundred grams of Mland Milk contained 66.1 grams of fat, 25.4 grams of protein, and 4 grams of carbohydrates. Mland Milk also contained 356 milligrams of omega 3 and 7,325 milligrams of omega 6. The taste of Mland Milk was not only sweet and tasty, but also a bit of a typical mlanding aftertaste. "We hope that this kind of milk products could be produced in a larger scale as an alternative food due to its nutritious content," added Tiffany. (YDI/ris/zsp)