Pingtung is a big banana county, but bananas are prone to the dilemma of "banana gold" due to scarcity of production or "banana soil" due to overproduction. In order to use bananas as raw materials suitable for various food additions, food factories have developed food raw materials. Zhutian Township Ruji Food spent two years developing "banana puree", which has successfully entered the supermarket channel. It has even been combined with another local specialty "cocoa" to add a new flavor to traditional cakes.
Taiwan's banana planting area is about 15,000 hectares, with an annual output of about 330,000 tons. In order to reduce production fluctuations caused by climate change and increase added value, the Banana Strategic Alliance held a banana processing and fresh banana promotion event "One Banana, Infinite Possibilities" at Ruji Food today, combining The creativity of domestic food processors presents the innovative concept of Taiwanese bananas as "not just a fruit, but also an innovative raw material for the food industry." The development potential extends from fresh fruits to food ingredients, baked desserts, snacks and specialty foods, hoping to create more new business opportunities in food applications and industries.
The fresh fruits on display are transformed into a variety of banana products for beverages, baking, desserts, ice products, snack foods and catering applications, including smoothies, milk tea, Basque cakes, dacquoise, puffs, ice cream, etc. In addition to traditional wedding cakes that can use banana puree as an ingredient, there are even "banana chips" to show the "versatileness" of bananas.
Lai Ming-yang, director of the Southern District of the Agri-Food and Food Administration, said that the delicious taste of Taiwan's bananas is well-known around the world, but in the past, when there was an abundance of bananas, it was the beginning of headaches for agricultural administration units, because prices would collapse and hurt farmers. Fortunately, the Banana Research Institute and Taiwan's food processing industry have leveraged their strengths to not only produce creative and popular products such as "banana chips", but now banana puree is used in a variety of dishes. Through cold storage and processing, the troubles when bananas are in abundance are solved.
Li Wenli, director of the Taiwan Banana Research Institute, said that they have launched multiple products such as green banana powder, banana chips, organic banana blossoms and banana shaqima to demonstrate the application potential of bananas in different processing forms. The products of Jiyuanguo and Hongyun Jishi were also displayed on site, including the integration of bananas into pastries, candies, pasta and snacks, etc., to enhance the added value of bananas through innovative technologies.
Ruji Food's "french fries" that cut "green bananas" into strips became an instant hit. The taste is not inferior to ordinary French fries. Chairman Xu Dequan pointed out that unlike green bananas, he decided to invest in the development of "banana mashed" two years ago. It sounds simple, but the most difficult thing in standardizing the production of bananas is ripening. He uses current prices every year He purchases at least 6,000 tons of bananas from banana farmers for processing. If the market price is too low, he also sets a purchase price at which farmers will not lose money. Because of its convenience, banana puree is not only used as a raw material for juice in supermarkets, but also a famous cake shop in Pingtung combines cocoa to create "banana cocoa cake", creating more outlets for bananas.
