India is the largest banana producers in the world, yet, only a fraction of this produce hits global markets. The National Research Centre for Bananas in Tiruchirappalli, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu estimates India’s banana and plantain production at 28.4 million tons per year with 20-24% of harvest lost due to substandard handling including improper transportation, packaging and storage reports Forbes.
Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, BiOWish Technologies has developed a product in the form of a wash that has been tested to be effective at resolving latex issues in banana production, increasing storage life and maintaining their freshness. This creates options for longer supply chains to market while preserving final produce quality and to reduce the overall spoilage losses.
Rod Vautier, a founder of the company and currently Vice President of Sales and Marketing, said, “As we developed our product’s technology to improve the banana washing process to improve fruit aesthetics and save water, the significant extension of shelf life for the fruit was unexpectedly the greatest benefit to the perishable food industry.”
During a recent trial, a banana producer in Chamarajanagar near Mysore, India, compared a traditional post-harvest of aluminum sulfate-treated water with the BiOWiSH wash and found that after six days stored at room temperature, the traditionally treated bananas showed more signs of crown rot and ripening than the bananas washed in water treated with BiOWiSH.
The additional time to ripening provided by the newly developed wash will help India overcome some of its logistical challenges and increase its amount of exportable quality fruit.
