Banana flour is a powder that is traditionally or commercially produced from green bananas. Banana is identified as a valuable crop that is embedded with various micronutrients. And of much interest to us is the unripe banana because of its commercial advantage of producing banana flour which serves as a cheaper alternative to wheat flour and also a source of resistant starch. The flour is mildly sweet in flavor and light in texture which can serve all-purpose flour in nearly all recipes and its regular consumption can be expected to benefit human health. Another benefit is, banana flour can help mitigate some food waste. It is a more sustainable option since it is made from damaged bananas or does not look nice. Aside from using banana flour for baking, the flour can be used as a thickening agent in soups, stews, and even smoothies.
Banana is a dynamic crop in the tropical and subtropical areas of the world. The fruit is either consumed in its ripe, mature, and edible form because of its more sweetening nature and due to its soft delicate structure and least shelf stability, most of the time encounters post-harvest losses. Despite the high production, about one-fifth of all bananas harvested is wasted which are normally disposed of improperly.
Given this, innovative approaches have been taken to explore green banana as it is considered as an ideal product for industrialization. With the ever-growing population and unpredictable climate change, the surest bet to food security is value addition. Banana flour production has come as a solution to reduce the waste of ripe bananas and has improved the shelf life of the fruit.
Commercial starches like cassava starch are of great importance in the textile, food, and pharmaceutical industries. Likewise, starch derived from bananas after some alteration can serve even more purposes. In general, starches have some similarities that make them interchangeable in both native and altered forms.
To conclude, banana flour is a great flour alternative that is gluten and nut-free. And since you can use it in many recipes, there are no limits when it comes to adding fruity flour to your dishes.
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