Value Addition of Processed Red Banana Flour in Wheat Pasta and its Acceptability

The world’s largest producer of fruits and vegetable is India. Bananas are a major crop in terms of global agricultural production and marketing It is a famous fruit among all socioeconomic groups owing to its year-round availability, low cost, wide variety, flavour, and nutritional and therapeutic benefits. The Red banana is one of the important varieties among different banana varieties with reddish-purple skin. It is a good source of minerals, such as potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, and folate, and also contains vitamins A, B6, and C. Food dehydration is a technique that adds one or more kinds of energy to food to reduce moisture levels to low levels and increase shelf life. Pasta is one of most popular cereal-based food in the world. Due to their nutrient profiles, extended shelf life, market availability, low prices, ease of preparation, and ease of transportation, pasta products are quite popular. The banana was cut into slices approx. 2mm thick, and the slices of pulp were dipped in 0.5% citric acid solution for 10 min and dried under sun drying and made into fine flour.The flour of banana is used for the preparation of pasta by replacing wheat. When subjected to sensory evaluation, variation D 10% of incorporation of RBF was highly accepted by 30 semi trained panel members. On analyzing the nutritional composition RBF incorporated pasta has 362 Kcal of energy, 10.73g protein, 66.21g of carbohydrate and 65mg of potassium. The shelf life of the standard and best product which were packed in airtight container stored at room temperature were subjected to sensory and microbial analysis on 1st,7th and 14th day and the result showed that product has extended shelf life days when stored in airtight container packaging. The cost of the standard was Rs.30 and the selected best productwas Rs.45. The formulated product was popularized among the adolescent girls.