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Textural hardness affects cooking time, processing, fuel used and the quality of cooked bananas. In this study, textural hardness of selected Ugandan cooking and juice banana cultivars at green maturity was determined using a Texture Analyzer in raw form and at 30, 50, 70, 90, 100 and 130 min in boiled, steamed, mashed and cooled forms.Raw juice bananas (JB) were significantly harder (36.17N to 42.43N) than raw cooking bananas (CB) (22.37N to 26.72N) (p<0.05). On cooking, JB were harder than CB irrespective of cooking method and time. Boiling and steaming rapidly decreased hardness of the bananas in the first 30 min and decreased slowly thereafter. Boiling produced softer bananas than steaming while mashing resulted in intermediate hardness. Amongst JB, Kayinja was significantly harder than Ndiizi and Kisubi in boiled and steamed forms (p<0.05). Hardness of CB was not significantly different (p>0.05) for all cooking treatments, but Kibuzi was consistently softer while Kazirakwe and Nakabululu were harder than other CB cultivars.Cooling significantly increased (p<0.05) hardness of bananas under all treatments with JB being harder in all cases. Mashed and steamed bananas were harder than boiled bananas when cooled. Bananas cooked longer had lower hardness regardless of cooking method.Overall, textural hardness decreases with cooking time regardless of cooking method. Boiled bananas are softer than mashed or steamed. Cooling increases hardness which follows first order kinetics. Therefore, bananas should either be boiled or steamed and mashed for softer texture and be eaten within 30 min of serving. Juice bananas should not be cooked because of the hard texture established in this study.

The exploitation of agri-food industrial by-products to produce novel foods is a promising strategy in the framework of policies promoting the bioeconomy and circular economy. Within this context, this study aims to examine the effect of food neophobia and food technology neophobia in the acceptance of a novel food by consumers (through an EU research project: Sybawhey). As a case study, a functional yogurt-like product was developed by synergistic processing of halloumi cheese whey, enriched with banana by-products. The present study contributes to the literature by examining consumers’ perceptions for such a novel food, identifying the profile of potential final users and classifying them according to their “neophobic tendency”. A comparative approach among groups from Greece, Cyprus and Uganda was adopted to explore whether respondents have a different attitude towards this novel yogurt. Results suggest that there is a potential for increasing consumption of novel foods derived by agri-food industrial by-products, but more information about the importance of using by-products are required to enhance consumers’ acceptance of this novel food. Such results may be useful to policy makers, aiming to promote strategies towards the effective reuse of food outputs leading to the manufacture of sustainable novel foods.

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Production of halloumi cheese in Cyprus has increased rapidly over the last decade since the popularity of the cheese is growing. This results in excess production of whey streams that pose serious environmental concerns and are difficult to manage. In our study, the poorly investigated second cheese whey (SCW) generated after the extraction of anari, a by-product of halloumi cheese manufacture, was examined for dairy industry lactic acid bacteria (LAB) culture production. The LAB studied were all initially isolated from SCW. These LAB were molecularly identified and characterized in an attempt to explore their potential use as starter cultures for the dairy industry. A total of 11 Gram-positive and catalase-negative isolates were identified, belonging to four different species/subspecies: Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. lactis, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. jakobsenii, Lactobacillus leichmannii and Lactobacillus crispatus. Lactose/galactose utilization tests demonstrated species-specific differences in galactose and lactose catabolism. Interestingly, culturing the selected isolates in SCW supplemented with skimmed milk (30% total solids) improved their freeze-drying tolerance (75–91% survival rate depending on the species). Moreover, isolates in vacuum-packed powders maintained viability and metabolic activity over 3-month storage at 4 °C.