Studies on the Automation of the Process of Banana Ripening (II)

Abstract

Thie study was done to find the posibility of automating processes of current commercially practised banana riping which has been operated by experienced and skilled operators.
(1) The experiment of banana ripening with 3.38kg of banana was conducted in a chamber of 51.8 1 made of transparent plastic plates. The temperature in the chamber was controlled to provide the chamber with the same ripening temperature schedule as in the banana ripening room which had been investigated before. The chamber was ventilated by a small air pump at the time when CO₂ concentration in the chamber reached about 8.0% since this was the case in the ripening room. The results of the experiment made good agreement on sugar content, color grade and hardness of pulp of banana with those of the ripening room. This could be considered that the experiment indicated the possibility of automation of banana ripening.
(2) To put automation of banana ripening into practice, development of reliable and inexpensive CO₂ analyser will be required. Banana ripening in a plastic film tent will deserve to be taken up for study to develop a new method for simple and economic benana ripening.