Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1912-07-25
BANANA FIGS
IN JAMAICA
Inquiries from Honolulu as to
Manufacture of New Food
Product

! Dreher, stationed in Jamaica, in Con
sular Reports, is going the rounds of
the press. 1t is on the subject Of
banana food products and states that
former articles on banana figs of ia
maica and the banana food companies
in the same island had attracted wide
attention and brought to this Office
and to the Jamaican manufacturers of
banana food products q great many
letters of INJURY from the United
States and also from Hawaii, England,
France, Germany and Austria"
About a quarter of q century ago a
man named Bailey started a factory
at Wailuku to make dried bananas
or banana figs, but, for some reason
IL proved q failure. although the figs
were not bad at all. The enterprise
yielded more unpaid bills than any.
thing else.
Consul Dreher's latest article gives
some information about the several
banana product mills of Jamaica and
their processes. In part it reads as
Follows:
For a good many years experiments
have been made in drying bananas,
but 1t has been difficult to find q pro-
cess for making product that would
keep well. Now that manufacturers
are using variety of machines and
apparatus it is to be expected that
the best process will soon be known.
Although worms are never found in
rips bananas, the preserved fruit if
left exposed attracts insects and soon
becomes infested with small worms,
as is the case also with other dried
fruits.
The food products manufactured are
fig bananas or banana figs, cooking
bananas. banana chips, -four, and
meal. ALI the factories dry or evap-
crate the bananas whole without the
addition of sugar, and yet they are
sweet and palatable, like preserved
figs, which they also resemble in,
color. At least one factory cuts the
bananas into short pieces before
drying or evaporating them, thus max
ing q product that looks much like
the dried figs of commerce. 1t seems
that IL would be- we'll in order to make
distinction to call the bananas cut
into pieces banana figs" and those
treated whole FIG bananas"
Bananas in Chips.
What are known as cooking ba-
nanas are so thoroughly dried as to-
be hard, the color of these almost
white. Broken into pieces, they form
banana ships" which, not meeting
with duties. are imported to be ground
I into meal or flour in the country of
consumption. In spite of the fact that
the meal is said not to keep We one
Jamaica factory uses an AT .erican
grist mill for grinding the chips into
meal. Another company has its own
factory in London, to which it i'm.
ports the chips to be ground into
-four and meal and made into other
preparations for market. A small
booklet is issued there to set forth
the dietetic value of banana foods as
attested by the British and German
food experts and others; and there is
added a list of products on sale, with
recipes for their use, etc. These ba-
mana food products have been award
ed many prizes, diplomas and certifi-
Gates of merit.
Bananas Nutritious.
1t seems that all banana food pro.
ducts are wholesome and nutritious.
The figs are delicious and are likely
to be preferred to real figs by many
persons. The fig bananas cut into
small pieces may be used like raisins
to- impart an additional flavor to cakes
and buildings. The chips, after being
well pounded or ground in a coffe or
other hand mill, may be boiled and
then used as an excellent breakfast
food or for making delicious buildings.
Cruel, porridge and other preparations
made from banana flour and meal, |
which are rich in easily soluble ear
bohydrates, are recommended for in
fants, invalids and dyspeptics.
The negro women of Jamaica use
banana meal Cruel as a substitute for
milk for their infant children. The
banana itself is one of the most whole
some and nutritious of fruits if eaten /
slowly when it is perfectly ripe that