HEALTH OF BANANAS

Waipa Post, Volume 45, Issue 3253, 10 November 1932, Page 3

HEALTH OF BANANAS

EXTENSIVE EXPERIMENTS BY SCIENTISTS.

j Some time ago a pathologist and a physiologist went together on sevI eral voyages. They were not cruising for pleasure, or for the sake of their own health, but, strange as it may sound, their so.'e reason was the health of the banana ! While on board they carried out extensive experiments to try to find ways and means of preventing wastage by disease anion- this popular fruit, the marketing of which is now an important industry. The results of their investigations are contained in a report entitled: "The Control of Wastage in Bananas." The report is issued by the i Empire Marketing Board, i In 1931 the importation into the | United Kingdom of the fruit reached ! Jie record figure of 16,102000 bunches | valued at £5,515,000. Jamaica, in con- | tributing 43 per cent of this total, set I up another record, sending 6,670,000 I bunches, or well over 1,000,000 more (than the record figure for 1930. " | l The authors of the report describe the extensive experiments they made of hold conditions, methods of chilling, and ways of packing the fruit. Their general conclusion is that no pains must be spared to minimise the time between reaping the fruit and cooling it to 53 degrees F. for its voyage, thus avoiding the growth of fungus.