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.

East African highland cooking bananas (EA-AAA) are a staple food and major source of calories for Ugandans. Cooking bananas are considerably wasted along the postharvest chain majorly due to poor handling and ripening. Banana waste is a potential source of secondary products such as pectin, wine, beer to mention a few. The aim of this study was to extract and characterize pectin from selected cooking bananas at various stages of ripening in order to assess their potential for commercial pectin production. Pectin was extracted from the bananas at five stages of ripening i.e. stages 0 (green maturity), 1, 2, 5 and 7. Extracted pectin at stages 2, 5 & 7 was characterized. Pectin yield from banana pulp decreased significantly with ripening (P<0.05) from between 18.1 to 22.65% at green maturity to between 0.65 to 1.28% at stage 7 of ripening. Pectin yield from banana peels was generally lower decreasing from between 5.34 to 6.61% at green maturity to between 1.01 to 1.38% at stage 7. The equivalent weight (1774 to 10144) of the pectin at selected stages of ripening was not significantly different (P>0.05) except individually. Methoxyl content was not significantly different among cultivars (P>0.05), however, it increased significantly through ripening stages (P<0.05). Anhydrouronic acid (AUA) ranged between 24.51 to 67.38% and increased with stage of ripening. AUA of pectin from pulp and peel did not differ significantly (P>0.05). The degree of esterification at each of the three stages was generally high (77 to 94%) implying high gelling power. These results showed that purity of pectin increases while yield decreases with ripening and that banana pectin has a high degree of esterification implying rapid set pectin. Thus, banana peel and pulp can be good sources of industrial pectin.

Texture is an important quality attribute of fresh and processed foods. In plant foods, texture is closely related with the structural integrity of the primary cell walls and middle lamella that is mainly composed of pectic substances. Bananas mainly contain water, starch, pectin and fibre which influence texture. Cooking bananas soften on cooking but harden on cooling. Despite many studies on retrogradation of starch and its effects on texture, little is known about the effect of added starch and/or breakdown of pectin on hardness of bananas upon cooking and cooling. In this study, the effects of added pectin and starch and structural elimination of pectin on hardness of bananas during cooking and cooling were investigated. Hydrolysis of pectin resulted in significantly harder bananas during cooking and upon cooling (P<0.05). Hardness of starch-treated bananas increased significantly with increasing starch concentration upon cooking and cooling relative to the control (P<0.05). However, treatment of bananas with added pectin alone resulted in an insignificant increase in hardness relative to the control. Upon cooling, hardness of pectin-treated bananas decreased significantly with increasing pectin concentration (P<0.05). Hardness of cooked bananas treated with a combination of starch and pectin increased but was not significantly different from the control. Upon cooling, hardness of the starch-pectin treated bananas decreased with increasing concentration similar to the effect of pectin when added alone. Current results showed that starch addition increases hardness of bananas upon cooking and cooling. However, pectin addition decreases hardness of cooked bananas upon cooling while structural elimination of pectin increases hardness upon cooking and cooling. These results imply that pectin contributes to a softer texture of bananas during cooking and cooling whereas starch increases hardness in cooked bananas. Pectin can therefore be added up to 5% to decrease hardness of cooked bananas.