Nutrient Composition and Sensory Evaluation of Ripe Banana Slices and Bread Prepared from Ripe Banana and Wheat Composite Flours

Abstract

There is a need to search for alternate uses for ripe banana to help reduce its post-harvest losses as well as increase its utilization in food product development. Despite its rich content of vitamins and minerals, ripe banana continues to remain one of the highly perishable foods with a short shelf life of about 4-7 days. The objective of this work was to evaluate the qualities of ripe banana slices and bread substituted with ripe banana flour. Two varieties of ripe banana (Gros Michel and Medium Cavendish) were sliced, pre-treated with 2% citric acid for 2 minutes and dried at 60°C for 72 hours using an oven dryer to obtain dry banana slices. Part of the oven-dried ripe banana slices were milled using a hammer mill and sieved through a 250 microns mesh sieve to obtain flour. The ripe banana flour were incorporated into bread at different formulations of 0, 10, 20 and 30% with wheat flour and studied. Sensory properties such as colour, aroma, mouthfeel and overall acceptability of the oven-dried ripe banana slices and the bread substituted with flour from the two banana varieties were determined. Proximate analysis was carried out on the oven-dried ripe banana slices as well as on the control and the two most preferred bread samples. Mineral analysis was also carried out on the oven-dried ripe banana slices. Results from the study revealed that, apart from colour, there was no significant difference (p>0.05) between the other sensory attributes of the oven-dried ripe banana. The 30% banana flour composited bread was the most preferred among the substitutions. Mineral analysis showed that there was a significant difference (p<0.05) between the two oven-dried banana samples. Proximate analysis of the slices from Medium Cavendish and Gros Michel showed that, moisture contents were (17.20 and 20.10%), ash (3.00 and 3.30%), fat (1.0 and 0.5%), protein (3.5 and 4.8%), fibre (0.9%), carbohydrate (74.40 and 70.30%) and energy content (320.70 and 305.10 kcal/100g) respectively. Apart from fat and fibre, there were significant differences (p<0.05) in the other components of the proximate composition of the sliced banana. With regards to the bread samples, there were significant differences (p<0.05) in the fat, crude fibre, ash, moisture and energy contents. The 30% bread substitution was significantly higher (p<0.05) in terms of ash, fat, crude fibre, moisture and energy than the control. In conclusion, bread formulated from ripe banana and wheat flour had a higher nutritional value when compared with bread from all-purpose flour.