Thanks for asking!
Most banana or plantain chip manufacturers, including the largest,
Chiquita and United Fruit, use manual peelers for products where
appearance is important. However, plantain peeling machinery does most
certainly exist.
This Business Setup Guide for Plantain or Banana Chip business details
the entire production process. Three steps are listed before frying:
"1. Selection: Good quality, green cooking bananas is preferred.
Kiau-Kiau - variety is considered suitable for making chips.
2. Cutting and Peeling: Using a knife, banana bunches are separated
from the main stem and individual bananas hands are separated from the
bunches. Using a hand peeler, bananas are peeled and immediately
sliced cross wise into thin, round slices. As some varieties with
latex cause itching or irritation while handling, it is better to rub
the hands with salt before peeling and slicing.
3. Immersion in salt water: Immediately after slicing the slices are
placed in salt water @ 3 to 5% of salt to the water. Added salt gets
in to the slices and improves taste arid acceptability of the product.
If slices are not placed in water, they turn Brown and later give an
unacceptable dark product."
BUSINESS SET-UP GUIDE Production of Banana Chips
Adobe .PDF format, requires Acrobat Reader
http://www.pngbuai.com/600technology/658-business-plan-guides/BANACHIP.pdf
Google cached HTML Version
http://216.239.33.104/search?q=cache:7LdAjKaAKSMJ:www.pngbuai.com/600technology/658-business-plan-guides/BANACHIP.pdf
-also-
From: BANANA PLANTAIN: Post-harvest Operations:
Plantain Chips
"Plantain chips are the most popular plantain products in Nigeria
(Onyejegbu and Olorunda, 1995). They are prepared by frying round
slices of unripened or slightly ripened plantain pulp in vegetable oil
(Figure 8). Best quality plantain chips have been obtained in Cameroon
by frying round slices of pulp (2 mm thick) in refined palm oil
between 160 and 170_C for 2 to 3 minutes (Lemaire et al, 1997). These
generally absorb less frying oil than chips from cooking banana and
dessert banana. The antioxydising treatment (soaking in citric acid
solution) which is indispensable to inhibit the action of
polyphenoloxydase responsible for the browning of the pulp of dessert
banana before frying is not necessary when making chips from plantains
and certain cooking bananas (Lemaire et al, 1997). The plantain chips
prepared in this way and packed in plastic sachets or in hermetic
aluminium sachets (Figure 10) can stay crispy and conserve all their
quality for more than 4 months at room temperature and away from
light. They generally contain less than 35 percentage of fats and
between 1 to 3 percentage residual humidity.
The production and marketing of plantain chips in Africa (Cameroon,
Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire) is principally a feminine activity,
which has greatly developed these past years. They are generally eaten
as snack food. Industries producing banana and plantain chips have
equally been developed in Cameroon and Colombia to give more value to
this perishable food product. These industrial or semi-industrial
units use various equipment making it possible to mechanise certain
activities in the production chain. The "robot-coupe" (models R 502, R
602, or R 602 VV) used for the rapid slicing of banana or plantain
pulp into round sizes of uniform thickness is an example (Figure 9).
In industry, frying can be done using continues or discontinues
electric or gas deep fryers, whereas vacuum packaging with appropriate
apparatus is welcome.
Plantain Chip Processing Flow Chart:
Green mature plantain bunches
Separation into individual fingers
Washing and manual peeling
Slicing into round pieces (2 mm thick)
Salting (optional)
Frying in vegetable oil
(Refined palm oil, 2 to 3 minutes at 160-170_C)
Plantain chips (golden colour)
Draining and cooling
Hermetic packaging
(Plastic or aluminium sachets)
Storage and commercialisation"
Information Network on Post-Harvest Operations
Organisation: Centre de Recherches Regionales sur Bananiers et
Plantains, Cameroon (CRBP); Author: J. Tchango Tchango, A.Bikoï, R.
Achard, J.V. Escalant & J.A. Ngalani; Edited by AGSI/FAO: Danilo Mejia
(Technical), Beverly Lewis (Language&Style), Carolin Bothe (HTML
transfer)
http://www.fao.org/inpho/compend/text/ch14.htm
Plantains Peeled Per Hour by Hand
---------------------------------
Web and database estimates and statistics for how many plantains can
be peeled in a certain length of time do not appear to be available,
however, I am able to offer information e-mailed to me by Chiquita,
plus my own experience.
Based on the following product listing, I emailed Chiquita's Fruit
Ingredients Division.
"New are Chiquita pre-cooked, frozen plantain slices, the "cooking
cousins" of bananas. An exotic new taste that'll do wonders for your
menu, not to mention your bottom line."
Chiquita Fruit Ingredients
http://www.chiquita.com/chiquita/doingbusiness/fiproduct.asp
Ronald Villalobos replied to my e-mail, stating that Chiquita "sliced
products are hand peeled and a person as an average peels 30 by hour."
-additionally-
For my first (summer) job, ages nine to thirteen, I was employed as a
preparation worker at a popular beach ice cream stand. As part of my
duties, I peeled several boxes of banana fingers for frozen bananas
each day. I could peel 30-50 (1 box) bananas in an hour using a
stainless steel knife to score and remove the peel. The process also
included trimming to length in some cases, and placing trays of peeled
bananas in the freezer as they were filled.
Specifically Plantains
----------------------
Plantains, however, are larger than bananas, and, at the stage of
maturity for making chips, have a tougher skin. I'm still skilled at
the knife technique. I bought a dozen under-ripe plantains today, and
found that I could could pick up, peel, and lay aside a plantain in
just under two minutes. This would equal 30 per hour, however, this
doesn't take into account any variables, other movements, or
additional tasks.
Plantains, with peel, weigh an average of 225 grams (8 oz) each. At a
rate of 30 plantains peeled per hour, the amount, by weight, peeled
per hour, per person, would be 6.5 kg (15 lbs).
Plantain and Banana Peeling Machinery
-------------------------------------
I was also able to locate information about several machines that are
used for banana or plantain peeling. The largest plantain and banana
processors, Chiquita and United Brands, have their own, proprietary
banana and plantain peeling machinery. In addition, there are a couple
of U.S. patents which have been filed and granted to individuals.
Chiquita Banana Processing - U.S. Patent RE34,237
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/search-bool.html&r=19&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ptxt&s1=chiquita&OS=chiquita&RS=chiquita
United Brands Banana Processing - U.S. Patent 4,874,617
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/search-bool.html&r=14&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ptxt&s1=banana&s2=peeler&OS=banana+AND+peeler&RS=banana+AND+peeler
U.S. Patent #6,591,742 - Plantain Peeler
http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/patog/week28/OG/html/1272-3/US06591742-20030715.html
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6591742.WKU.&OS=PN/6591742&RS=PN/6591742
U.S. Patent #5,497,552 - Green Banana/PlantainPeeler
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/search-adv.htm&r=2&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&p=1&p=1&S1=(plantain+AND+peeler)&OS=plantain+AND+peeler&RS=(plantain+AND+peeler)
Google Search Terms:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Thanks for offering the opportunity for such a fascinating search,
nat101. It's been one of my favorites. If anything I've said is
unclear, you have questions about any of the materials, or if you
discover a broken link, please, feel free to ask or let me know. I'll
be glad to assist you further.
---larre |
