As a nutritious food ingredient, banana powder is gradually being widely used in many fields such as baby food, nutritional supplements, cakes and beverages. But how do you powderize bananas? The process of processing bananas into banana powder is a multi-step process, which includes important links such as slicing, drying, and grinding. This article will introduce this process in detail and the key equipment involved in each link.
1.Banana preparation: slicing
Before processing bananas into powder, bananas need to be pre-processed, the skin removed and cut into slices of appropriate size. The purpose of slicing is to facilitate the subsequent drying process, because the moisture content of bananas is very high. If they are not processed, it will take a long time to dry the bananas directly. Slicing can greatly shorten the drying time and improve production efficiency.
The slicer can adjust the thickness of the slices as needed to make the banana slices uniform and convenient for subsequent drying. In addition, the slicer is usually highly efficient and can process a large number of bananas quickly, making it suitable for large-scale production.
2.Drying: Removing moisture
Before bananas are processed into powder, it is necessary to remove excess moisture. This step is crucial. The moisture content of bananas is usually above 70%, while the moisture content of banana powder should be controlled at a lower level, otherwise it is easy to cause product deterioration and storage difficulties. In order to remove moisture from bananas, drying equipment is usually used.
Drying machine is an essential equipment in banana processing. Hot air drying is the most common industrial method, which evaporates the moisture in banana slice by heating air. In order to ensure that the nutritional content and taste of banana slice are not affected, the drying temperature is generally controlled between 50-60℃.
3.Grinding: Converting banana slice into banana powder
After the banana slices are fully dried, they can be crushed. The grinding machine is the core equipment for processing bananas into banana powder. It can grind the dried banana slice into fine powder. According to the requirements of the final product, users can adjust the mesh size of the grinding machine, that is, the fineness of the powder. The efficiency of the grinding machine and the uniformity of the powder directly affect the quality of banana powder, so the selection of equipment is very critical.
4.Screening:
After being ground, banana powder is often screened to remove large particles or impurities to ensure the quality of the final product.