Fiber-packed banana peels can make sugar cookies more nutritious, find researchers

11 Aug 2022 --- Researchers have revealed that incorporating banana peel flour into sugar cookie batter can make them healthier. In taste tests, cookies enriched with some banana peel flour were described as “more satisfying” than those baked with wheat flour alone.

Notably, interest in plant-based diets and reducing food waste is increasing, and people want creative ways to use every part of their vegetables and fruits.

Banana peels are one such waste that chefs and home cooks have been experimenting with, but these skins are highly fibrous, making them unpleasant to eat raw. 

Recently, scientists found they can grind the peels into flour rich in fiber, magnesium, potassium and antioxidant compounds. And when small amounts of wheat flour in breads and cakes were replaced with the new flour, the baked goods were more nutritious and had acceptable flavors. 

Opening the door for consumer acceptance 
However, similar experiments haven’t been widely done with cookies. Faizan Ahmad and colleagues at American Chemical Society (ACS) Food Science & Technology wanted to substitute some of the wheat flour in sugar cookies with banana peel flour, assessing the cookies’ nutritional quality, shelf-stability and consumer acceptance.

To make banana peel flour, the researchers peeled ripe, undamaged bananas and then blanched, dried and ground the skins into a fine powder. 

Banana peels are highly fibrous, making them unpleasant to eat raw.They mixed different amounts of the powder with butter, skimmed milk powder, powdered sugar, vegetable oil and wheat flour, creating five batches of sugar cookies, and baked them.

Antioxidant-rich cookies 
Increasing the amount of the banana peel flour from 0% to 15% in the batches produced browner and harder products, which could be a result of the high fiber content from the peels. 

In addition, the researchers note that cookies with banana peel flour were healthier, having less fat and protein, higher amounts of phenols and better antioxidant activities than the conventional ones. 

A panel determined that cookies with the smallest substitution of banana peel flour (7.5%) had the best texture and highest overall acceptability compared to the other batches. 

After the lengthy storage period, this batch was kept well for three months at room temperature – it tasted the same as the wheat-only versions. Because cookies can be enriched with banana peel flour without impacting consumer acceptance, researchers say this addition could make these baked goods more nutritious.

Accentuated appetites for foods fortified with functional benefits are growing the commercial potential for protein-boosted snacks into new product segments, as previously reported by NutritionInsight. 

Recently, Boston-based start-up FYXX Health launched a high fiber, low carb, low sugar cookie fortified with vitamins D, B12, zinc, magnesium and calcium it says will “shake up” both the snack and supplement industries.

Edited by Elizabeth Green