The Dept. of Food Science and Technology in collaboration with the Centre for Research and Development of Food, Nutrition and Public Health (P4GKM) organized a sharing session about the consumer behaviour towards Chocolate products, especially vegan chocolate. This activity is part of an implementation and continuation of Memorandum of Agreement between PT. nDalem Value Creation Indonesia and the Faculty of Agriculture, particularly the Dept. of Food Science and Technology. PT. nDalem Value Creation Indonesia is a promising chocolate industry in Yogyakarta, which is popular with the brand “Cokelat nDalem”. The community service program was organized virtually by Dr. Dimas Rahadian Aji Muhammad, Anastriyani Yuliviatun, S.TP., M.Sc., and Asri Nursiwi S.TP., M.Sc. In this event, Dr. (Cand.) Joel Garcia Juvinal from Dept. of Food Science and Technology, Central Luzon State University (CLSU), Philippines was invited to share his research related to the development of vegan chocolate in the market. The owner of Coklat nDalem together with their marketing and social media specialist successfully participated in the meeting. The invited speaker, Dr. (Cand.) Joel Garcia Juvinal, mainly talked about how to conduct product concept testing prior to introducing a new product, in this case, vegan chocolate to the actual market. He emphasized, “introducing the product concept to our consumer is as important as introducing the actual product. It is in many times gives the opportunity to the producers to understand what consumers actually need and want. Thus, they may come up with the best product concept possible.” According to Dr. Dimas, the chair of the community service program, more research-based collaboration in the development of vegan chocolate products either with the CLSU or Coklat nDalem could be explored more following this activity. CLSU This activity has been financially supported by Universitas Sebelas Maret through the scheme of Program Pengabdian MasyarakatInternasional(PKMI) 2023.
