Data Sheet 1_Peel-inclusive flours from out-of-specification immature Cavendish and Saba bananas: process optimization for improved flour lightness and product characterization.pdf

While converting these rejected fruits into flour offers a sustainable valorization strategy, peel inclusion remains challenging due to its potential effects on flour color, a key quality attribute that may influence consumer acceptance.

This study aimed to optimize processing conditions using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) to produce lighter-colored peel-inclusive flours from OOS immature Cavendish and Saba bananas and to determine how the optimized process affected the properties of the final product.</p>Methods<p>The optimized flours were evaluated for their physicochemical, proximate, and functional properties, and compared with untreated and commercial flours.</p>Results and Discussion<p>Results showed that the optimized process produced flours with higher color quality, as reflected by high lightness values (L* = 87.32–89.51), while maintaining the overall characteristics of the flours with only minimal changes in most of the evaluated properties.