Green banana flour as a functional ingredient in food products

Recently, the market interest in green banana has raised because of its nutritional aspects, mainly due to its functional compounds as resistant starch. However, the adstringency limits green banana consumption hence it has been mostly marketed as flour or starch. The aim of this research was to evaluate the main applications of green banana flour (GBF) in food products and the effects of the main utilized processes on sensorial, physicochemical and functional properties. The cultivar or variety of fruit, presence or absence of peel, type and conditions of dehydration process have influenced on the aforementioned properties of GBF. It was also verified that the GBF has been utilized as a functional ingredient in different types of food products like breads, cookies, cake pre-mixture, snacks, nuggets and, mainly, pastas. Altogether, the use of GBF in food products enhanced their functional properties, because it improves the resistant starch, total phenolics content and antioxidant capacity. The GBF also reduces the content and hydrolysis of digestible starch and, therefore, glycemic index of these products that show a great potential in nutrition therapy of diabetes mellitus and obesity.