Improving the Utilization of Cooking Bananas and Plantains

Abstract

Cooking bananas and plantains are traditional starch staple crops of considerable importance in the humid tropics. The prominence of cooking bananas and plantains in the diet is, however, threatened by several factors, in particular crop losses due to pests and diseases, and difficulties in transporting and handling bulky, irregularly shaped, perishable fruit for growing distant urban centres. The challenge to the postharvest technologist is to maintain and increase the utilization of the crop. This is currently being achieved by improved handling using appropriate technology, assisting breeders in the selection of less perishable fruit and the development of processed forms of cooking banana and plantains that are easily produced and acceptable to the consumer. Convenient processed forms are particularly important to increase utilization by consumers in the urban centres where traditional methods of preparing the raw product may not be practical.