Effect of Varying Drying Temperature on the Soluble Sugar and Nutritional Content of Banana

In this work, the effect of drying temperature on the available carbohydrate is investigated. Nigerian climate favours the cultivation of banana and it is a ready fruit delight in almost all homes. Hybrids and polypoids of the species musa acuminata and musa balbisiana are very common. Unfortunately, post-harvest losses of 40 – 60%, of this energy rich fruit are encountered yearly. Drying is an age long method of preservation which has stood the test of time. Bananas are known to possess high carbohydrates with low glycaemic index which makes it a healthy fruit or snack. To determine the optimum drying temperature for the drying of Banana fruit. The banana fruit was peeled and sliced to about 5 mm thick and dried in a tray dryer at varying temperatures of 40 °C, 50 °C, 60 °C and 70 °C. The control sample was air dried at the average prevailing temperature of 30 °C. Results obtained showed that increased drying temperature favoured more loss of moisture from the samples and in turn, favoured an increase in the available carbohydrate in the dried fruit. The ash, fat and crude fibre content marginally changed with drying temperature. The optimum temperature for treated and untreated samples, from the results obtained, were 60 °C and 70 °C respectively. Drying impacts positively on the available sugar in the Banana fruit.