Textural and rheological characteristics of sun-dried banana traditionally prepared in the north-east of Thailand

Traditionally prepared sun-dried bananas were evaluated for textural and rheological properties. Assessment of how those properties changed over a storage period of two months was also carried out. The texture analysis results that relate to large deformations of the product show that the samples were not significantly affected by storage for one month, but subsequent storage for an extra month did result in softer samples. Rheological characterisation shows that upon heating samples become more elastic, however, this behaviour was reversed upon cooling. The rheological behaviour did not change significantly over the two month storage period. Overall results indicate that textural changes are not the limiting factor in the shelf life of this product. Further work is recommended in order to improve our understanding and maximise the stability of the product over the anticipated shelf life.