Banana flour

Banana flour is a powder traditionally made of green bananas. Historically, banana flour has been used in Africa and Jamaica as a cheaper alternative to wheat flour. It is now often used as a gluten free replacement to wheat flours or as a source of resistant starch, which has been promoted by certain dieting trends such as paleo and primal diets and by some recent nutritional research. Banana flour, due to the use of green bananas, has a very mild banana flavor raw and, when cooked, it has an earthy non-banana flavor; it also has a texture reminiscent of lighter wheat flours and requires about 25% less volume, making it a good replacement for white and white whole wheat flour. This has led to rising popularity among those suffering from celiac disease and gluten free dieters.

Banana flour is generally produced with green bananas that are peeled, chopped, dried, and then ground. This process can be completed traditionally by hand where the bananas are sun dried, dried in an oven, or a residential food dryer and then either ground in a mortar and pestle or with a mechanical grinder. The green banana process requires 8–10 kg of raw green bananas to produce 1 kg of banana flour. In recent years, large scale commercial production has begun in Africa and South America using the same basic methodology.

Chile has been developing an alternative method of banana flour production using ripe banana waste. Chilean researchers have developed a process that uses over ripe banana peels to add dietary fiber to the ripe banana fruit, which does not have the resistant starch properties of green bananas. While lacking resistant starch, there are clear advantages over banana powder. Banana powder is made from dried and ground fully ripened banana puree and thus does not have the fiber of banana peel flour content nor the resistant starch of green banana flour. Banana powder is typically used as an additive for baby food and smoothies for the large amounts of potassium and other nutrients contained in bananas without the starchy properties of green banana flour.

Historical use

Traditionally, banana flour was produced as an alternative to high priced wheat flour in various parts of Africa and Jamaica. As early as 1900, banana flour was sold in Central America under the brand-name Musarina and marketed as beneficial for those with stomach problems and pains. During World War I, the U.S. Department of Agriculture considered plans to produce banana flour as a substitute for wheat and rye flour.

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