American Journal of Food and Nutrition, 2016, Vol. 4, No. 4, 103-111 Available online at http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajfn/4/4/3 © Science and Education Publishing DOI:10.12691/ajfn-4-4-3 Nutrient Composition and Sensory Evaluation of Ripe Banana Slices and Bread Prepared from Ripe Banana and Wheat Composite Flours Joseph Adubofuor 1,* , Isaac Amoah 2 , Vida Batsa 1 , Pearl Boamah Agyekum 1 , Josephine Akuba Buah 1 1 Department of Food Science and Technology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana 2 Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana *Corresponding author: jadubofuor@gmail.com Abstract There is a need to search for alternate uses for ripe banana to help reduce its post-harvest losses as well as increase its utilization in food product development. Despite its rich content of vitamins and minerals, ripe banana continues to remain one of the highly perishable foods with a short shelf life of about 4-7 days. The objective of this work was to evaluate the qualities of ripe banana slices and bread substituted with ripe banana flour. Two varieties of ripe banana (Gros Michel and Medium Cavendish) were sliced, pre-treated with 2% citric acid for 2 minutes and dried at 60°C for 72 hours using an oven dryer to obtain dry banana slices. Part of the oven-dried ripe banana slices were milled using a hammer mill and sieved through a 250 microns mesh sieve to obtain flour. The ripe banana flour were incorporated into bread at different formulations of 0, 10, 20 and 30% with wheat flour and studied. Sensory properties such as colour, aroma, mouthfeel and overall acceptability of the oven-dried ripe banana slices and the bread substituted with flour from the two banana varieties were determined. Proximate analysis was carried out on the oven-dried ripe banana slices as well as on the control and the two most preferred bread samples. Mineral analysis was also carried out on the oven-dried ripe banana slices. Results from the study revealed that, apart from colour, there was no significant difference (p>0.05) between the other sensory attributes of the oven-dried ripe banana. The 30% banana flour composited bread was the most preferred among the substitutions. Mineral analysis showed that there was a significant difference (p<0.05) between the two oven-dried banana samples. Proximate analysis of the slices from Medium Cavendish and Gros Michel showed that, moisture contents were (17.20 and 20.10%), ash (3.00 and 3.30%), fat (1.0 and 0.5%), protein (3.5 and 4.8%), fibre (0.9%), carbohydrate (74.40 and 70.30%) and energy content (320.70 and 305.10 kcal/100g) respectively. Apart from fat and fibre, there were significant differences (p<0.05) in the other components of the proximate composition of the sliced banana. With regards to the bread samples, there were significant differences (p<0.05) in the fat, crude fibre, ash, moisture and energy contents. The 30% bread substitution was significantly higher (p<0.05) in terms of ash, fat, crude fibre, moisture and energy than the control. In conclusion, bread formulated from ripe banana and wheat flour had a higher nutritional value when compared with bread from all-purpose flour. Keywords: Gros Michel flour, Medium Cavendish flour, sensory evaluation, banana-wheat flour bread, ripe banana slices Cite This Article: Joseph Adubofuor, Isaac Amoah, Vida Batsa, Pearl Boamah Agyekum, and Josephine AkubaBuah, “Nutrient Composition and Sensory Evaluation of Ripe Banana Slices and Bread Prepared from Ripe Banana and Wheat Composite Flours.” American Journal of Food and Nutrition, vol.4, no. 4 (2016): 103-111.doi:10.12691/ajfn-4-4-3. 1. Introduction Banana is the common name used for the herbaceous plants of the genus Musa (family Musaceae). The banana fruit originated from the tropics in Southern Asia and is classified as the second largest produced fruit in the world after citrus. The fruit is cultivated in more than 100 countries throughout the tropics and subtropics with an annual world production of about 98 million tonnes, of which around a third is produced in each of the African, Asia-Pacific, Latin American and Caribbean regions [1,2]. Four main varieties of banana have been reported to be grown in Ghana. These are Mysore (locally called “Alatakwadu”), Gros Michel, apple banana and red banana belonging to the Cavendish group [3]. According to [4], about 25% of the total food energy for about 60 million people in Africa comes from bananas and plantains. In Ghana, bananas are the most exported fruits in terms of volume and they rank second after citrus fruit in terms of value. In 2010, Ghana exported 52,000 tonnes of banana to mostly European countries, representing one percent of the total export from around the world. Local producers in Ghana exported 62,000 tonnes of bananas to the Eurozone in the year 2011 [5]. Ripe banana fruit contains fat, natural sugars, protein, potassium and vitamins A, B complex and C which are