The Flour Processing Machine for <i>Musa sapientum</i> Linn

Abstract

Banana flour is one of the main commercial products that could be incorporated into other food products. However, the current processing of banana flour production is not only incompatible to traditional village level; but also difficult to manage for the quality control. In this work, we constructed the low cost banana flour processing machines including dryer and pounder. We also tested our machines by using three conditions of banana cleaning such as salt, vinegar and red lime. The dehydrate banana and flour were characterized by CIE-Lab and particle size analysis. After pneumatic drying at 70oC and 3 hr, we found that vinegar had the whiteness value greater than other conditions. We also found that the flour obtained from vinegar presented the smallest diameter which was approximately 0.017 mm. This particle size diameter corresponds to mesh size No. 20 in ASTM E11:01 standard. These results showed that the characterization protocol of banana flour used to grading the dehydrate banana and flour. Therefore, with our project obtained can be such a high potential approach that can be developed product in household, community in terms of commercial production or community enterprise.