Development and optimization of flaked breakfast cereal processing parameters and formulation, incorporated with banana pulp and peel, using response surface methodology

Breakfast cereal plays an important role in a balanced diet. In Malaysia, tons of highly nutritious banana peels, overripe, oversupplied and rejected bananas end up in food waste, as a result of high production and consumption of banana. Thus, this study aimed to produce flaked breakfast cereal with banana pulp, banana peel and cornmeal through oven -baking. Baking temperature, baking time and volume of banana pulp and peel mixture were optimized by using response surface methodology (RSM) to achieve desired fracturability and yellowness. Through this study, fracturability (R2 = 0.98, P≤0.05) and yellowness (R2 = 0.99, P≤0.05) were found to be significantly related to the processing parameters and formulation of the flakes. The optimum processing parameters and formula obtained from this study were the baking temperature of 129.5°C, baking time of 15 mins and volume of banana pulp and peel mixture of 140 g. Besides, a sensory evaluation was conducted and compared among the optimized flakes and commercial corn flakes. Based on the results, there was a significant difference (P≤0.05) in aroma, appearance and taste but no significant difference (P>0.05) in mouthfeel and overall acceptability between both types of flakes. It was recommended that the shelf-life study of the optimized flakes could be done for future study.