Techniques to Improve the Shelf Life of Freshly Harvested Banana Blossoms

Abstract

Banana blossom is consumed as a vegetable in India, Sri Lanka and the South East Asian countries. Cleaning of the blossom is a cumbersome process due to the time taken and the drudgery involved in removing the style and the sepal from each floret before consumption. Minimally processed vegetables are gaining importance in the urban markets, satisfying consumer’s need of time and healthy food. Hence an attempt was made in this study to process the blossom of banana as a freshly processed vegetable in a ready to cook form and to assess its’ shelf life under different packaging treatments and storage conditions. The cleaned banana florets were packed in different packaging materials viz., polypropylene 40, 60 & 70 micron and low density polyethylene 110 micron. The shelf life of the banana florets was evaluated at different conditions viz., packing in bags without ventilation, ventilated bags, florets packed without any pre-treatment, florets pre treated and packed, storage of the samples under ambient (30±2°C) and refrigerated (5°C) condition. The physiological weight loss of the packed samples was recorded daily during storage. The shelf life was estimated by quality scores on a scale of 5-1 and observations recorded till 3rd day of storage whereby after 3rd day, the quality deteriorated. The results revealed that banana florets remained fresh for 3 days when packed in non ventilated poly propylene 40 micron bag under ambient and refrigerated storage.