While the famous kaoliang (高粱酒) produced in Kinmen has already brought enormous income to the offshore island, researchers say they have now developed new technologies to make the wasted sorghum grains into value-added products.
National Quemoy University’s (NQU) Department of Food Science assistant professor Lin Chi-fan (林志芳) said more than 100 tonnes of waste sorghum grains — the by-product of the fermentation process — are being produced at government-owned Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor Co every day and are mainly used as fertilizers, which he said was not the best way of recycling them.
Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor’s statistics showed that about 25 million tonnes of kaoliang was produced last year, bringing in about NT$13.6 billion in revenue. It is estimated that kaoliang production may reach 27 million tonnes this year.
After experimenting with different ways to recycle the waste sorghum grains, Lin discovered that by extracting them into a powder and adding them to various food products, it enhanced the flavor and the nutritional value of the food.
“They can be added into bread and cookies, as people now like to eat whole-grain products for health reasons, and because they have a special flavor and high acidity they can also be put into preserved sour cabbages,” Lin said, adding that high acidity of lower than a 4.6 pH level can serve as a preservative agent and that they can used to make soy sauce.
Other than being used as a food ingredient, NQU’s Department of Food Science assistant professor Lai Ying-Jang (賴盈璋) has developed a method to make dried waste sorghum grains into activated carbon, which can be used as a filtration or moisture-proof preservative in several ways — such as being added to spice containers to keep them dry and to absorb odors, for filtering drinking water or in medical products.
“Results showed that about 25kg of activated carbon can be produced from every 100kg of dried waste sorghum grains,” he said, adding that activated carbon is smaller, easier to store and that it cost about 10 times the price of sorghum grains.
The results of a collaborative research project by NQU and National Chiayi University, Lai said the team plans to apply for a patent for the technology that produces activated carbon from dried waste sorghum grains.
‘HIDDEN GEM’: The city earned plaudits for its low crime rate, world-class healthcare system, cheap cost of living and easy public transportation Taipei has been named the 10th best city in the world for quality of living in an annual survey by the editors of Monocle, a UK-based global affairs and lifestyle magazine. The survey, which is to be published in the magazine’s July/August issue, selected the world’s top 25 cities based on factors including cost of living, retail, hospitality, culture and access to green spaces, as well as feedback from Monocle correspondents. Taipei’s 10th place finish was one place down from a year earlier. The survey ranked Copenhagen as the world’s best city, with Zurich, Lisbon, Helsinki and Stockholm rounding out the top five.
GLOBAL STRATEGY: Indo-Pacific alliances need reinforcement to prevent Chinese occupation of Taiwan, which would threaten Japan, Hawaii and Australia, Pompeo said The US should officially recognize Taiwan as a free, independent nation and establish official diplomatic ties, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo told an event at the Hudson Institute in Washington on Friday. Every US president since Harry Truman has considered Taiwan’s existence to be of utmost importance to US national security, Pompeo said. Taiwan is a principal US partner in technology and economic matters, and if China were to capture Taiwan’s semiconductor supply chain, it would severely hamper the US economy, Pompeo said. Should China occupy Taiwan, it would severely weaken US influence in the Indo-Pacific region and its surrounding areas,
NO COMORBIDITIES: The girl died of encephalitis, the sixth COVID-19-related death of the disease this year and 19th death of a child from the virus, the center said The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 52,213 new domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases and 171 deaths from the virus, including a four-year-old girl, who had been diagnosed with encephalitis, and a 19-year-old man, who had underlying health conditions. “The caseloads are usually higher on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but they [yesterday] fell 7.3 percent from the day before,” Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said. Chuang, who is the CECC’s spokesman, said that most cities and counties reported a drop in new cases, and the CECC expects fewer than 50,000 new cases today. The center said that 150 of
LIMIT: The CECC has capped the number of weekly arrivals to 25,000, which critics said has limited the number of available flights and caused ticket prices to soar The government is not likely to raise the cap on the number of inbound travelers before the end of this month, despite the apparent effect on the number of inbound flights, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said yesterday. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Wednesday last week eased quarantine rules for inbound travelers, who must undergo three days of home quarantine upon arrival and spend another four days in self-initiated disease prevention. It also capped the number of inbound travelers to 25,000 per week. The weekly limit has drawn criticism that it has limited the number of flights