Pancake Formulations Based on Plantain Flour ( Musa AAB)

Abstract

In order to contribute to the reduction of postharvest losses of bananas and plantains and to diversify uses of plantain in Cameroon, flours obtained from a local plantain cultivar (Big ebanga) were used for pancakes production. The results of physicochemical parameters of flours varied significantly (P < 0.05). In addition, the optimization of pancakes formulation enabled to retain three most appreciated preparations by consumers. Formulations were differently encoded, depending on their composition. They were further added to the conventional one based on wheat flour, also encoded, and the four products were submitted to a sensory evaluation gathering 72 tasters. They gave their valuation on the colour, taste, texture, aroma and the overall quality of each product following a hedonic scale of 9 points: 9 (I like extremely) to 1 (I don’t like). Statistical analyses show that product 430 (made of 100% wheat flour) indicated an overall average appreciation of 7.29 while the product 136 (made of 100% of plantain flour) has an overall average rating of 6.76. After ANOVA, DUNCAN test showed no significant difference between the overall quality of product 430 and product 136. This study clearly indicates that plantain flour can be used for the preparation of pancakes that meet consumer’s expectations.