By OctoFrost marketing coordinator Carmen Popescu

Banana is one of the most consumed fruit worldwide, and it is a favorite among both children and grownups. You can have it whenever and wherever you want, it is easy to digest and it gives a quick energy boost right after consumption. It is a known fact that bananas are an important source of potassium, fiber and in general a healthy, convenient snack.

The health benefits of bananas combined with the low-cost and availability worldwide makes it no surprised that the banana is so popular.

Banana has been commercialized for decades as a raw product, but the increasing demand on the market for new and diverse products forced the producers to come up with new product ideas and solutions that can better satisfy the consumer.

The best way to achieve this goal was with the help of high performance freezing methods such as the IQF method. By individually quick freezing the banana, processors preserve all the benefits of the product for a longer period of time.

The IQF banana market grew of course, because of this obvious reasoning, and due to the increasing trends on the market for ready-to-eat products. Bananas are sold today in different forms, from fresh to frozen, but frozen banana opens the possibility for a wider range of banana products. Frozen bananas are usually used for yoghurts, smoothies and ice cream, but also for desserts and snacks.

The IQF freezing method is superior to traditional freezing methods like block freezing for example, due to the fact that it preserves the banana’s natural texture, smell, taste, and nutrients, maintaining a perfect separation. All of these elements make the difference when aiming for a premium IQF banana product.

Obtaining high quality IQF banana though is not that easy, and high quality IQF banana is what processors need in order to have a premium product to use and to sell on the market. In order to obtain this result, there is some important advice the OctoFrost team thinks needs to be taken into consideration during the freezing process.

Banana is a difficult product, mainly because of its sticky texture and high amount of natural sugars.

The first step in order to obtain premium IQF banana is to focus on the selection of raw material. Choosing high-quality raw material is of main importance, in order to avoid the formation of lumps and surface defects.

The raw material needs to present a firm texture, while overripe products need to be separated and removed before starting the freezing process. One single overripe banana can destroy an entire batch, due to the stickiness of the pulp that can get stuck on the bedplate and mix with the high-quality raw material.

After a careful selection of the raw material, an appropriate pre-treatment is necessary. Before slicing or dicing, the IQF banana needs to be pre-cooled and dived into an ascorbic acid batch so that oxidation is avoided.

From the OctoFrost team’s experience, achieving superior IQF banana is supported by the pre-cooling treatment that should be done around the temperature of 0 C, while the ascorbic acid batch should not take more than a couple of seconds, otherwise the final product is at the risk of forming corals.  On the other hand, if the temperature is too high, the separation of the IQF banana could encounter issues.

Last, but not least, if you want to achieve the best results when producing IQF banana, you need a superior freezing technology. An innovating top class IQF tunnel freezer that can handle high infeed temperatures and bananas with high sugar content up to 20% is what processors should aim for if they want to obtain great results even with difficult, sensitive and delicate products like IQF banana.

The increasing interest for a healthy and nutritious diet will continue to grow the demand and consumption of IQF fruit, especially proven health veterans such as the IQF banana.

www.freshfruitportal.com