Evaluation of banana quality under hot water treatment

Abstract

The green and unripe Saba banana were harvested from the tree that was planted at Wang Ulu, Kangar, Perlis in order to study the evaluation of banana quality under hot water treatment. This study presents to evaluate the quality of banana under hot water treatment in terms of shelf life (day), total weight loss, total soluble solid, pH pulp, effect on peel color, effect on pulp to peel ratio and effect on respiration rate of the banana. Besides, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of water temperature and dipping duration on banana qualities and to determine the optimum shelf life of banana using statistical tool. The method that was used in the experiment was by dipping the whole fruit of banana into hot water (50ºC, 55ºC, 60ºC) with specific time duration (5 minutes, 7.5 minutes, 10 minutes). Then the results that got from the experiment was analyzed using design of experiment (DOE). From the DOE optimization table, the selected optimum water temperature and dipping duration that give the longest shelf life (SL) was found at temperature of 60°C for 5 minutes. This study also shown that SL of Saba banana that was treated with hot water treatment increased by 6 days compared to untreated fruits. Total weight loss and total soluble solid increased whereas the pH pulp of Saba banana decreased gradually during ripening period. Lastly, the effects of the different dipping temperature and time showed significant difference on carbon dioxide (CO2) production during storage period. Saba banana that was treated with temperature of 50ºC (5 minutes) produced highest amount of CO2 during storage period while banana fruits treated with temperature of 60ºC (5 minutes) showed lower amount of CO2 production in concentration dependent manner.