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Scientists are BARC-ing up the banana tree: The Indian Express
Mumbai, Sept 03: Inside the peeling Room 28 of a building at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) lies a well-guarded stock most unusual in a nuclear agriculture lab.
Mumbai, Sept 03: Inside the peeling Room 28 of a building at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) lies a well-guarded stock most unusual in a nuclear agriculture lab.
If you ask nicely, chances are they will let you sip a secret — a sticky sweet juice that tastes just like ripe banana.
The formula will please soft drink guzzlers struggling to go au naturel. The potassium-rich juice has no water, no external enzymes, no preservatives except a dot of citric acid when bottled. It lasts three months at refrigerated temperature.
‘‘There’s a glut of bananas in Indian markets that are just wasted,’’ says S F D’Souza, head of the nuclear agriculture division. So the team has cooked up recipies to pluck raw and ripe bananas — India’s largest cultivated and highest consumed fruit — from wastage by the tonnes.
Sharing space with petridishes are bananas bought from nearby Anushakti Nagar markets. Here, they are reborn as a brownish banana wine, high fibre cookies whisked with banana powder — not maida — and baby food.
‘‘The problem with bananas is that refrigeration can’t prolong shelf life. You can’t extract juice trapped inside by squeezing, grinding or crushing,’’ explains D’Souza, awaiting final word on the Indian patent applied for by the Department of Atomic Energy.
Unlike commercial fruit drink technologies that depend on expensive external enzymes, BARC utilises a cheaper method —not based on irradiation—relying on inbuilt enzymes to separate the liquid from solid pulp. ‘‘We served it chilled and everyone begged for more,’’ scientific officer, N K Ramaswamy, says about 250 bottles made in BARC and served at an agri-symposium in March. ‘‘It can be served carbonated or natural. The lab taste panel also recommended that some will prefer juice diluted three times.’’
At lab-level, 1 kilo of bananas makes 500 ml of juice. Curious inquiries are arriving, with the technology ready for up-scaling and transfer to industry.
Last year, home science students of a local college were invited to BARC to bake biscuits with 80 per cent banana powder instead of flour. Rich in soluble fibre, they retained a banana taste and smell. The powder lasts a year and can make low-cost, easily digestible baby food.
A lab taste panel found it ‘‘better than commercial products.’’
The formula will please soft drink guzzlers struggling to go au naturel. The potassium-rich juice has no water, no external enzymes, no preservatives except a dot of citric acid when bottled. It lasts three months at refrigerated temperature.
‘‘There’s a glut of bananas in Indian markets that are just wasted,’’ says S F D’Souza, head of the nuclear agriculture division. So the team has cooked up recipies to pluck raw and ripe bananas — India’s largest cultivated and highest consumed fruit — from wastage by the tonnes.
Sharing space with petridishes are bananas bought from nearby Anushakti Nagar markets. Here, they are reborn as a brownish banana wine, high fibre cookies whisked with banana powder — not maida — and baby food.
‘‘The problem with bananas is that refrigeration can’t prolong shelf life. You can’t extract juice trapped inside by squeezing, grinding or crushing,’’ explains D’Souza, awaiting final word on the Indian patent applied for by the Department of Atomic Energy.
Unlike commercial fruit drink technologies that depend on expensive external enzymes, BARC utilises a cheaper method —not based on irradiation—relying on inbuilt enzymes to separate the liquid from solid pulp. ‘‘We served it chilled and everyone begged for more,’’ scientific officer, N K Ramaswamy, says about 250 bottles made in BARC and served at an agri-symposium in March. ‘‘It can be served carbonated or natural. The lab taste panel also recommended that some will prefer juice diluted three times.’’
At lab-level, 1 kilo of bananas makes 500 ml of juice. Curious inquiries are arriving, with the technology ready for up-scaling and transfer to industry.
Last year, home science students of a local college were invited to BARC to bake biscuits with 80 per cent banana powder instead of flour. Rich in soluble fibre, they retained a banana taste and smell. The powder lasts a year and can make low-cost, easily digestible baby food.
A lab taste panel found it ‘‘better than commercial products.’’