Standardization of process for preparation of banana fruit bar.

Abstract

In India, the post-harvest losses in banana is estimated to an extent of 20-30% and majority of losses (60-70%) occur after ripening of fruit during its retailing (2). Often large quantities of unmarketable ripe fruits are dumped into the garbage or fed to cattle due to poor storage facilities causing a loss of around Rs. 500 crores every year. These wastes and other unmarketable surpluses can be converted into value added products like fruit bar, jam and sweet chutney. Fruit bar is a confectionery item prepared by drying fruit pulp after mixing with appropriate quantities of sugar, pectin, acid and colour. Most of the commercially available fruit bars except mango leather are synthetic in nature and without fruit pulp. Natural fruit pulp based fruit bars are more nutritious and tasty since substantial quantities of dietary fibres, minerals and vitamins are present. Though considerable information is available on mango fruit bar, information on banana fruit bar is lacking. Therefore, a preliminary investigation was carried out to standardize the recipe and process for preparation of banana fruit bar