<![CDATA[Chicken meatballs are one of the widely consumed food products due to their distinctive taste and convenience. The use of wheat flour as a binding agent in chicken meatballs can be developed through the utilization of local food ingredients, one of which is Job's tears seed flour (Coix lacryma-jobi L.), which contains starch and has the potential to be used as a substitute ingredient. This study aimed to analyze the effect of Job's tears seed flour substitution on the sensory quality of chicken meatballs, including roundness, neatness, uniformity, grayish-white color, typical chicken meatball aroma, chewiness, fine fibrous texture, firmness, and savory taste. An experimental method was applied using two treatments, namely 50 g of wheat flour as the control (X₁) and 50 g of Job's tears seed flour as the substitution treatment (X₂). Organoleptic evaluation was conducted by 30 untrained panelists using a 1–7 sensory rating scale for all observed attributes. The data were analyzed using an Independent Samples t-Test with the assistance of SPSS version 22. The results showed that the substitution of 50 g of Job's tears seed flour resulted in significant differences in all sensory attributes of the chicken meatballs. Treatment X₂ obtained higher mean scores than X₁ for roundness (5.13), neatness (5.78), uniformity (5.53), grayish-white color (6.07), typical chicken meatball aroma (5.73), chewiness (6.06), fine fibrous texture (5.83), firmness (6.04), and savory taste (5.78). These results indicate that the substitution of 50 g of Job's tears seed flour affected the sensory quality of chicken meatballs and has potential as an alternative substitute for wheat flour in the development of processed food products based on local ingredients.]]>
