Banana Chips Production by Hot Air and Microwave Dehydration Methods: A Comparative Study

Banana slices belong to long Cavendish variety first pretreated with blanching and chemical treatments (T , T , T ) followed by hot air drying at 60, 70 and 80°C and microwave drying at 300, 500 and 700 123 W microwave power intensity. Dried samples were evaluated for color, sugar content (sucrose), ascorbic acid, rehydration ratio, drying time and drying rate. Pretreatments caused increase in drying rate and decrease in drying time. Drying rate in microwave is tenfold of hot air drying therefore drying time in microwave drying about one tenth of hot air drying. Quality factors such as sugar content reduced at microwave drying method (average 6.64 mg/100) was more than hot air drying (average 10.36 mg/100). Also ascorbic acid retention in hot air drying was more than microwave drying.Rehydration ratio that indicated texture destruction during drying is highest at 60C in hot air drying and 500 W power intensity at microwave drying. Among various pretreatments, T was the best to produce high quality banana chips and hot air drying at 60°C was the best 2 drying method for produce banana chips.