Textural Hardness of Selected Ugandan Banana Cultivars under Different Processing Treatments

Samuel Gafuma, G. W. Byarugaba-Bazirake and Ediriisa Mugampoza

Journal of Food Research, 2018, vol. 7, issue 5

Abstract: Textural hardness affects cooking time, processing, fuel used and the quality of cooked bananas. In this study, textural hardness of selected Ugandan cooking and juice banana cultivars at green maturity was determined using a Texture Analyzer in raw form and at 30, 50, 70, 90, 100 and 130 min in boiled, steamed, mashed and cooled forms.Raw juice bananas (JB) were significantly harder (36.17N to 42.43N) than raw cooking bananas (CB) (22.37N to 26.72N) (p<0.05). On cooking, JB were harder than CB irrespective of cooking method and time. Boiling and steaming rapidly decreased hardness of the bananas in the first 30 min and decreased slowly thereafter. Boiling produced softer bananas than steaming while mashing resulted in intermediate hardness. Amongst JB, Kayinja was significantly harder than Ndiizi and Kisubi in boiled and steamed forms (p<0.05). Hardness of CB was not significantly different (p>0.05) for all cooking treatments, but Kibuzi was consistently softer while Kazirakwe and Nakabululu were harder than other CB cultivars.Cooling significantly increased (p<0.05) hardness of bananas under all treatments with JB being harder in all cases. Mashed and steamed bananas were harder than boiled bananas when cooled. Bananas cooked longer had lower hardness regardless of cooking method.Overall, textural hardness decreases with cooking time regardless of cooking method. Boiled bananas are softer than mashed or steamed. Cooling increases hardness which follows first order kinetics. Therefore, bananas should either be boiled or steamed and mashed for softer texture and be eaten within 30 min of serving. Juice bananas should not be cooked because of the hard texture established in this study.

Keywords: Food; Consumption/Nutrition/Food; Safety (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/405530/files/5bab918015323.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aesjfr:405530

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Food Research from Canadian Center of Science and Education
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().