Effect of pre-treatment on the quality of minimally processed fresh-cut banana pseudo stem

The market for fresh-cut vegetables had been grown rapidly due to the changes in lifestyle pattern and also health benefits associated with these foods. The pre-treatment of fresh-cut banana pseudo stem was done with two different anti-browning agents (ascorbic acid, potassium meta bi-sulphite (KMS)) at 1% for 15 min to determine the effect of a change in color (browning). The samples pre-treated with KMS had minimum decrease in color value of ‘L’ (70.41) and ‘b’ (20.94) value whereas there was a minimum increase of ‘a’ (1.28) value in 35 days of storage at 8±2°C which is the most desired quality for reducing the browning effect. The optimized pre-treated fresh-cut banana pseudo stem packaged in low-density polyethylene (LDPE) was stored at two different storage temperatures of 27±2°C and 8±2°C. Among which minimum quality changes were seen at 8±2°C with physiological loss in weight (2.3%), colour values such as ‘L’ (70.41), ‘a’ (3.30) and ‘b’ (17.1) and fibre content (0.8 g/100g) remained same during its storage days. The minimum growth of bacteria and fungi was also found as 3.64 × 10⁵CFU/g and 2.76 ×10³ CFU/g in 35 days of storage. The sensory evaluation of minimally processed fresh-cut banana pseudo stem had maximum overall acceptability of 8.

Banana pseudostem improves the functionalefficiency of kidney and live.

It also acts as a diureticagent helping to eliminate waste fluids from thebody.

It helps in the treatment for the removal ofstones in the kidney, gall bladder, and prostate

Changes in lifestyle pa erns has leads to increased demand for cut vegetables as the people do not have time to prepare vegetables at home as well as in hotels.

Because of these factors consumption of minimally processed products has significantly increased.

Shelf life of fresh-cut banana pseudostem is limited due to its enzyme activity. So in order to increase the shelf life, this study has been take up.