Abstract:

Bananas (matooke) are a common staple food crop in Uganda, generating vast agricultural waste during preparation. In this study, banana peels, which had adequate starch remaining in them, were used to process  vinegar. A sharp stainless steel knife was used to cut the banana peels into smaller pieces and these were boiled to gelatinize the starch. The extract was separated from the boiled mass by use of a muslin-cheese cloth, and fermented by adding wine yeast (VIN13) in a 10 liter jerry-can, fitted with an airlock. A muslin-cheese cloth was then used to separate the extract from the boiled mass. A laboratory scale 20 liter -fermenter was used to produce the wine vinegar by surface culture accetification. This resulted in banana wine vinegar whose properties comply with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standard requirements for vinegar.