Canning of banana

Canning is a method of preserving food by first sealing it in air-tight jars, cans or pouches, and then heating it to a temperature that destroys contaminating microorganisms that can either be of health or spoilage concern because of the danger posed by several spore-forming thermo-resistant microorganisms, such as Clostridium botulinum (the causative agent of botulism).

Banana cannot be canned on their own. The more important canned banana products are puree, baby foods, banana slices, and tropical fruit cocktail. Bananas are also canned as pastes, drinks and slices.

Banana can be canned in slices in syrup. Best quality slices are obtainable from fruit at early fruit at an early stage of ripeness. The slices are process in a syrup of 25° Brix with pH of about 4.2 and in some process calcium chloride (0.2%) or calcium lactate (0.5%) are added as firming agent.

Internally lacquered cans with an acid-resisting lacquer and a high internal tin coating mass is recommend as considerable corrosion has been encountered in plain cans.

When canning banana puree, the puree is filled into 30-lb cans with plastic film bag liners, sealed, and stored (2–4◦C). A process to do away with the acidification step involved extruding ripened, chopped bananas, heating to 121◦C by injecting steam, cooling to 2-3◦ C, filling into fiber containers and blast freezing (-20◦ C).
Canning of banana

Banana slices in syrup

Several methods are used for canning banana slices in syrup. Best quality slices are obtainable from fruit at an early stage of ripeness. These sliced ripe bananas preserved in cans are used for desserts and fruit salads.

The slices are processed in syrup of 25° Brix with pH of about 4.2. Calcium chloride (o.2%) or calcium lactate (o.5%) can act as firming agent.

Heat processing for slightly over 2 minutes deactivates enzymes and eliminates the possibility of bacterial contamination.

Color is stable through at least 2 years of half life. The products can be stored in in-refrigerated areas.
Banana slices in syrup

Process of making banana syrup

Process of making banana syrup

Banana syrup processing is a process which permits the facile conversion of green bananas to a sugar syrup.

It uses a sequence of steps involving:

*Grinding the bananas

*Heating the bananas

*Treating the bananas with an alpha amylase to convert the starch granules into *lower molecular weight molecules (liquefaction)

*Changing conditions and treating the low molecular weight starch molecules and other substances in the liquefied fluid with the enzymes, amyloglucosidase, pectinase, cellulase, macerase, etc.,

*Filtering the resultant fluid to remove the solid

*If necessary, evaporating the sugar solution to a suitable concentration.

Process of making banana syrup

Banana sauce

Though banana sauce can be easily found at Asian markets, the sauce can be easily made at home without all the artificial colors and flavors.

In the Philippines, bananas are used to produce ketchup in a commercial scale. Banana sauce resembles tomato ketchup in appearance but not in flavor.

Banana cultivar was blanched, peeled, mashed and cooked with spices and vinegar to yield banana sauce with favorable acceptability. The product is stable for almost a year.

Banana sauce looks just like regular sauce or ketchup and is made from bananas, tomatoes, sugar, vinegar and spices. It has a sweet and sour taste and doesn’t taste like bananas at all.

Though naturally a brownish-blonde hue, the newly created banana sauce was dyed a bright red to resemble the old standard.  Banana sauce became popular in the Philippines as tomato ketchup was in United States.

Banana sauce is cheaper than tomato sauce in the Philippines and is also commonly found in Hawaii and the West Indies. It is often used as a dip for fried chicken hotdogs and other fired dishes.
Banana sauce

Ripening process of banana

Bananas are good sources of carbohydrate, whether unripe or overripe. The green banana is dry and bitter; the ripening process makes the fruits become edible. They become sweeter less green and soft.

Tissue softening commences, during which starch is degraded to sugars in both pulp and peel, and rupture strength of cell walls slowly deteriorates. The ripening process involves the hydrolysis of the starch in the ripening plant. There is a rapid decline in starch content and a corresponding increase in sugar content.

Most of the sugar in ripe banana is sucrose, glucose, and fructose, sucrose being predominant.

This activity is a form of autolysis (self-digestion). The starch also can be broken down after consumption via action of pancreatic alpha-amylases, as well as other enzymes.

The water content of the pulp increase by 3 to 4% during the 10-11 days required for ripening to ‘eating ripe’.

During ripening, peel color changes from dark green to bright yellow and this is due to chlorophyll breakdown which gradually unmasks the carotenoid pigments also present in the unripe peel.

During the color changes the pulp becomes softer and sweeter as the ration of sugars to starch increases.
Ripening process of banana