Development Process Protocol for banana flour

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.