Abstract:
Banana a common herbaceous plant of the genus Musa, is the cheap
source of carbohydrate and rich source of potassium, calcium, antioxidants and
other micro nutrients. But this fruit is highly perishable owing to its higher water
content and it is susceptible to many diseases, especially fungal infection. Post
production losses of banana can be reduced by adopting various post-harvest
management practices like cleaning, sorting, pre-storage treatments etc.
Banana flour is a powder made from processed bananas. The plantain
flour has a good potential for use as a functional agent in bakery products on
account of its high water absorption capacity. It is used as a component for
production of milk shakes and baby foods, cakes, biscuits etc. Banana flour
contains high per cent of starch hence it is used for the formulation of nutritious
weaning mixes and supplementary foods. Hence a study has been undertaken to
standardize the protocol for banana flour preparation. Plantain slices were dried
at various temperature-treatment combinations. The prepared flour was mixed
with different proportions of sugar and is stored. The various quality parameters
were tested periodically at an interval of 30 days. Prediction equations were also
developed for various quality parameters of prepared flour.
This study showed that a banana dried at 70°C followed by 0.5% citric
acid treatment in 24 h in RRLT-NC dryer is a better method of drying of banana
without microbial contamination. The mixing of banana flour with sugar in the
ratio 75:25 (75% of banana flour and 25% of sugar) gives maximum vitamin C
retention and less microbial spoilage. By considering the economy this
combination is also a suitable one. The observations of various quality
parameters during the storage study also support this result.
