Effect of Puffing Conditions on Quality of Crispy Banana

Abstract

with a mature ripe stage of 3 containing 14-18 oBrix was peeled and sliced into approximately 2.5 mm thickness, dipped into 0.75% (w/v) citric acid for 5 minutes and randomly divided into 2 groups for treatments. One group was pretreated with blanching at a temperature of 90 oC for 1 min while the another group without blenching. The banana with and without pretreatment were dried in the hot air oven at a temperature of 90 oC to final moisture content of 25% d.b.and followed by puffing them with hot air to boil and evaporate the moisture quickly at temperature of 170 oC for 5 min and 160 oC for 4 min to obtain moisture content of 4% d.b. The physical properties of color, shrinkage and texture (Hardness) of the crispy banana were studied. The experiment results showed that the crispy banana without pretreatment condition resulted in high L* and b* value and low a* value as compared to crispy banana with pretreatment whereas the crispy banana at high puffing temperature had lower L* and b* value and higher with a* value than that puffed at low temperature. The pretreatment and puffing temperature have a significant effect on shrinkage and hardness of crispy banana (p < 0.05). The crispy banana with and without pretreatment and puffing at temperature of 170 oC showed lower hardness and shrinkage than puffing at temperature of 160 oC. Sensory evaluation results showed the crispy banana without pretreatment and puffed at temperature of 160 oC or 170 oC had higher acceptable average score in terms of color,odor, crispy and overall liking attributes than that of pretreatment crispy banana (p<0.05).