Banana peels are not always destined for the trash or compost. They’re making their way onto people’s plates, replacing pork in “pulled-shell” sandwiches and being fried in “bacon.” And now, researchers are reporting ACS Food Science and Technology Show that adding banana peel flour to sugar cookie batter makes the food healthier. In taste tests, cookies enriched with some banana peel flour were more satisfying than those baked with wheat flour alone.
Interest in plant-based diets and reducing food waste is growing, and people are looking for creative ways to use every part of their vegetables and fruits. Banana peels are one such waste that chefs and home cooks are experimenting with, but these skins are extremely fibrous, making them unpleasant to eat raw. Recently, scientists have found that they can grind the peel into a flour that is rich in fiber, magnesium, potassium and antioxidant compounds. And when small amounts of wheat flour in breads and cakes were replaced with new flour, the baked goods were more nutritious and had an acceptable taste. However, similar experiments have not been done extensively with cookies. Therefore, Faizan Ahmed and colleagues wanted to replace some wheat flour with banana peel flour in sugar cookies by evaluating the nutritional quality, shelf-stability and consumer acceptability of the cookies.
To make flour from banana peels, researchers peeled ripe, bruised bananas and then blanched, dried the skins into a fine powder. They mixed butter, skimmed milk powder, powdered sugar, vegetable oil and wheat flour in varying amounts to make five batches of sugar cookies and baked them.
Increasing the banana peel flour content from 0 to 15% in batches resulted in browner and firmer products, which may be due to increased peel fiber content. Also, cookies with banana peel flour were healthier, lower in fat and protein, higher in phenols, and had better antioxidant activity than conventional ones. A trained panel determined that cookies with the smallest replacement of banana peel flour (7.5%) had the best texture and highest overall acceptability compared to other batches. This batch kept well for three months at room temperature — it only tasted like the wheat version after the long storage period. Because cookies can be enriched with some banana peel flour without affecting their consumer acceptance, researchers say this addition can make these baked goods more nutritious.
The authors acknowledge funding from the Department of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Aligarh Muslim University.