Sustainability of traditional sago products and the opportunities of modern sago-based products: A review

The wide distribution of sago forests in Indonesia reaches 5.5 million ha spread across Papua, West Papua, Sulawesi, Maluku, etc., with productivity reaching 15.24 tons/ha/year. This review aims to gather information about the potential of sago, including the benefits of sago as a staple and health, the sustainability of traditional foods and the opportunities for modern food of sago. The use of sago is generally still in the form of traditional food such as kapurung, papeda, sinoli, tutupola, sagu lempeng, and others. Traditional food is traditionally processed and has a low shelf life, and tends to be consumed by the lower middle class. Meanwhile, modern sago processing is processed modernly, and the selling value and durability are also high so that it can develop. Modern sago products are used widely both in food, biotechnological industry and non-food industries. Traditional products are still sustainable with various innovations such as canning for kapurung, fortification in bagea cakes and making better noodles. In this regard, the sago palm is gaining much importance as a crop par excellence and a starch crop of the 21st century, due to its being an extremely sustainable plant with the ability to thrive in most soil conditions.