Response to Article Firew Deneke Damota, Ketamaw Salelign Yazie, Babuskin Srinivasan and Ballekallu Chinna Eeranna* Evaluation of the effect of the operational parameter on unripe banana (Musa cavendishii ) flour production: case study at Arba Minch https://doi.org/10.1515/ijfe-2021-0280 Received September 13, 2021; accepted January 21, 2022; published online February 11, 2022 Abstract: In recent times, there are huge postharvest los- ses in banana production due to low market price, over- production, lack of proper storage facilities and inadequate supply chain management. The transformation of fresh bananas to Unripe Banana flour has got immense potential to cope up with the postharvest losses of banana and it adds value to fresh bananas. Due to high availability of minerals such as potassium, calcium, iron and also the presence of high dietary fiber and resistant starch in unripe banana, they promote colon health and act as nutritious food source. In relation to this, the effect of the three types of pretreatment techniques on production of flour from unripe banana and their quality characteristics were analyzed. Drying of banana slices was conducted after performing pre-treatments like optimal osmotic solution variables, sodium meta-bisulfite (SMS), and hot water (at 100 °C). Both the untreated (control) and treated samples was oven dried at 45, 60, and 75 °C for a day (24 h). After complete drying, the banana slices were milled into a powder. For the study of optimum osmotic parameters, the design-Expert (software version 7.0.0) at three level full factorial design was employed. The optimum conditions of minimal solid gain percentage (5.66%) at maximum water loss (29.16%) were obtained at 30 °Brix sugar concentra- tion, 60 °C socking temperature and 90 min soaking time. Keywords: flour; unripe banana; water loses; solid gain; solid dehydration. 1 Introduction Ethiopia an East African country is well known for its production of agro-based products such as Coffee, Ba- nanas, Cereals, spices and other agricultural products. In recent times there were more postharvest losses on ba- nanas reported and it can be resolved by potential value addition of fresh bananas. As stated by FAO 2008 [1, 2], the world annual banana production reached 100 million metric tons and its increasing every year. In fruit market, banana production takes place the first position in the world. In Ethiopia, half of the total available area for fruit cultivation (53,956.16 ha) is being used for banana culti- vation with about 2,574,035 tons produced by farmers (according to CSA, 2015) [3]. The SNNPR regions of Ethiopia (Sheka, Bench-Maji and Gamo-Gofa) are known for their banana production, among that Gamo-Gofa alone con- tributes for 70 percentage (70%) of the total banana pro- duced in the entire country [4, 5]. In Ethiopia Post harvest loss tends to face against the production and the business of banana in the country. Recently in Ethiopia, there is struggle to transform from the agriculture sector to the manufacturing sector (agro processing) and secure their people food stability. So in order to maintain food security and enhance the agro processing sector, banana has a high potential to be processed into banana flour, banana juice, banana wine, banana chips and other value-added products. The green bananas are good sources of carbohydrates, minerals and fiber content [6]. As per Choo & Aziz [4], because of their rich intrinsic crystalline structure the green bananas have high resistant starch content which was resistant to glycol-amylase and amylase [7]. The Un- ripe banana flour powder can be used as an ingredient in formulations of foods like soups, ice cream, baby foods, *Corresponding author: Ballekallu Chinna Eeranna, Department of Industrial Chemistry, College of Natural Sciences, Abaya Campus, Arba Minch University, Arba Minch, Ethiopia, East Africa, E-mail: chinnaouct@gmail.com. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1603- 6078 Firew Deneke Damota, Ketamaw Salelign Yazie and Babuskin Srinivasan, Department of Industrial Chemistry, College of Natural Sciences, Abaya Campus, Arba Minch University, Arba Minch, Ethiopia, East Africa, E-mail: firew40spring@gmail.com (F.D. Damota), salelgnketemaw@gmail.com (K.S. Yazie), buski87@gmail.com (B. Srinivasan) Int. J. Food Eng. 2022; aop