Banana (Musa paradisica ) (cv. ‘Grand Naine’) fruits of
good quality and well matured and ready for ripening
were procured from the local farmers banana garden and
were allowed to ripe under natural conditions. Fully ripe,
yellowish coloured banana were used for preparing osmodried
banana slices. Preliminary trails were conducted to
optimize the osmotic dehydration conditions with respect
to pretreatments with or without sulphur fumigation as
detailed below.
Osmotic dehydration of banana slices was conducted
based on standardized conditions of preliminary trials viz.
using 8 mm thickness of banana slices, then subjecting with
or without sulphuring @ 2 g/kg of slices for 2 h followed by
immersing in 60°Brix sugar syrup containing 0.1% potassium
meta-bisulphate (KMS), 0.1% citrate (T1
) and 0.2%
(T2
), 0.4% (T3
) and 0.8% (T4
) ascorbic acid at (1:2 w/v)
ratio of fruit slices to syrup for 16 h. The slices without sulphuring
and no syruping were treated as control (T0
). The
slices were dried in cabinet drier at 55°C for 10 h and tested
sensorily for most desirable and acceptable fi nished product
and storage study.