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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

dehydrated banana mash, East Africa, plantains

College

Life Sciences

Department

Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Science

Abstract

This project was designed to help smallholder farmers in Eastern Africa learn how to develop a dehydrated banana mash using solar technology. This project was inspired by the need of finding a beneficial means of preserving excess banana crops in the region. One of the major varieties of bananas produced in Eastern Africa is the Eastern African highland banana. These cooking bananas, also known as plantains, are the primary production crop in the region. Because bananas have such a short shelf life farmers are not able to sell their produce fast enough and much of it goes to waste. The people in the region commonly make a staple dish called matoke by cooking and mashing the plantains. After much work in the laboratory a preservable matoke dish was successfully produced making it possible to use the research in Eastern Africa.

Included in

Nutrition Commons

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