Effects of osmo-dehydration, blanching and semi-ripening on flour of plantain

233 Plantains and bananas (Musa sp.) are important starchy staples in Ghana. Processing of plantains into flour is limited as most plantain foods are eaten as boiled, fried or roasted. However, after the introduction on local and foreign markets of instant plantain fufu (popular West African food) flour consisting of plantain flour and cassava starch, interest in plantain flours as a commercial commodity has increased. Thus, researchers at CSIR-Food Research Institute, Accra, Ghana studied the viscoelastic properties, water activity and colorimetry properties of plantain flour produced employing osmo-dehydration, hot-water blanching, semi-ripening and fresh unripe process treatments from three plantain (Musa AAB) cultivars namely ‘False Horn’, ‘French Horn’ and ‘True Horn local’. Treatments given to the plantains before the hot-air dehydration were osmo-dehydration, hot-water blanching and semi-ripening and fresh unripe. The best pasting characteristics occurred for ‘True Horn local’ and ‘False Horn’ osmo-dehydrated flours. Water activity and moisture content were 0.270.39 a w and 5.08-7.25%, respectively with the lowest recorded for ‘False Horn’ osmodehydrated flour. Colour parameters were in the range of 87.34-79.56 and 15.7126.74 for L* and b*, respectively. The least browning colour (a*) was exhibited by ‘True Horn local’ and ‘False Horn’ osmo-dehydrated flours. Statistical significances (P<0.05) were recorded for water activity, moisture content and a* colour parameter between process treatments for fresh unripe, semi-ripe, osmo-dehydration and blanching whereas no statistically significances occurred for varietal differences for ‘False Horn’, ‘True Horn local’ and ‘French Horn’ plantains.