Are Banana Chips Healthy?

Banana crisps (or banana chips) are dehydrated slices of bananas that have been enjoyed as a tasty snack around the world. In Southeast Asia, they are especially beloved as a traditional tropical snack across cultures!

But did you know? Modern day banana crisps are not always as wholesome as they seem. Today, they’re often coated with sugary syrup, spices or flavours. Preservatives and oils could also be added to improve efficiency in food production.

Although bananas themselves are highly nutritious, you would wonder if the same can be said about dehydrated banana snacks.

Let us explain in details the ways to make banana crisps/chips and how healthy each process is.

Nutrients in banana

Bananas are an excellent source of potassium, a vital mineral and electrolyte that helps the heart to beat regularly and muscles to contract. They're also rich in dietary fibre and resistant starch, a type of carbohydrate that resists digestion in the small intestine, causing it to be absorbed slowly and prevent sugar spike.

To date, banana has been used both in healthy diets and treatment plans associated with digestive problems.

Banana is a perfect nutritious fruit that is accessible to most people. From the health perspective, banana contains a wide range of essential nutrients but it can be loaded with calories if taken in large quantities. Let’s look at what a 100-gram serve of banana provides (source: USDA):

• Calories: 89
• Protein: 1.1 grams
• Carbs: 23 grams
• Fibre: 2.6 grams
• Sugar: 12 grams
• Total fat: 0.3 grams
• Potassium: 358mg (10% DV)
• Vitamin B6: 20% DV

Nutrients in banana chips

Although banana boasts fibre, potassium and antioxidants, these benefits are quickly offset by the fat, calorie, sugar and chemical content in modern-day banana crisps. 

There are many ways banana crisps are made. Let’s look at some of the common ways they are made.

Deep-fried

The most cost-effective way to make banana crisps is deep-frying. This traditional snack is well-known in Southeast Asia where bananas are in abundance. The common deep-fried banana crisps in the market uses palm oil (often labeled as “vegetable oil”) and involves cooking at over 180ºC. 

High-heat frying oxidises industrial oils and can produce harmful compounds. When sugar or flavourings are added, the end product is high in calories, fat, and even potentially carcinogenic substances.

Deep-fried banana crisps look much yellower than the actual banana, due to the high oil absorption.

Summary:

Deep-fried banana crisps are tasty and cheap but usually made with unhealthy oils and cooked at high temperatures. This method significantly reduces nutritional value and increases harmful compounds.

Baked

Baking is a slightly healthier method, typically done at ~100ºC for 1–3 hours. Lower temperatures can be used with a dehydrator, though this extends the drying time to 8 hours or more.

Despite the lower temperatures, prolonged exposure to heat due to the long cook time still leads to massive nutrient loss. 

Many baked banana crisps in the market rely on sugar coating to give the exterior a crispy texture. Without sugar, baked bananas would remain soft, chewy or gooey.

Some brands puree bananas with other ingredients and bake them as sheets to achieve a crispy texture. However, this double processing further reduces the nutritional content. 

Baked banana crisps should turn dark during processing. To improve appearance, food manufacturers may use additives like fruit concentrates or sulphur.

Summary:

Baked banana crisps are a healthier alternative to deep-fried ones, but still lose nutrients during long cooking. Sugar is often added to achieve crispiness and improve appearance.

Sun-dried

Sun-drying is often seen as the most natural method. Traditionally, bananas are left in direct sunlight for 5–7 days. However, in modern production, this is rarely feasible due to unpredictable weather and the long drying times.

Imagine multi-day storms during the monsoon and the long hours needed, open sun drying is not feasible for modern businesses. Today, many producers use industrial solar dryers to create controlled environments that dry bananas at 60–70ºC within 5–7 hours. While still nutrient-preserving, this method produces a soft, chewy texture rather than crispiness.

Traditional sun-dried bananas have existed in the market for centuries, but the bare and chewy texture has become lacking, as compared to the modern day snacks consumers are exposed to. As a result, food manufacturers often flavour their sun-dried bananas into different forms to make them more appealing.

Additives like sulphur dioxide are sometimes added to prevent natural darkening. 

Summary:

Sun-dried bananas are soft and naturally sweet, and can be very healthy. However, check ingredient lists carefully, as additives are sometimes used to enhance appearance or taste.

Freeze-dried

Freeze-dried banana crisps is the gold standard of food dehydration. Freeze dryers remove moisture through sublimation at -30ºC, retaining highest possible level of nutrients with no heat applied.

The result is a crispy banana slice with a crunchy texture at first that gets slightly mushy as it rehydrates in your mouth. Freeze drying is popular with parents seeking safe, natural snacks for young children. 

Sometimes, crispy banana is pureed with other ingredients to form exciting variations of freeze-dried crispy snacks. It is important to check the ingredients for sugar and unwanted additives that cancels out the health benefits this technology offers. 

That said, freeze drying is slow and very energy-intensive, often taking 24-48 hours per batch. The enormous energy consumption in freezing and drying is the key reason why freeze-dried snacks are more expensive than their counterparts.

While freeze-dried banana crisps do not require any sugar to deliver the crispiness, it is still important to check the ingredient list to be sure.

Summary:

Freeze drying yields pleasantly light and crunchy banana crisps. It retains the most nutrients but are more expensive due to high energy consumption.

Vacuum-frying

Vacuum-frying (VF) may sound futuristic, but it’s a modern, effective way to make crispy banana snacks at lower temperatures (60–80ºC). This process uses near-vacuum conditions to dehydrate banana slices with minimal oil absorption and oxidation.

At a low temperature, banana slices turn into neat crunchy little treats. When done right, VF banana crisps are much healthier than most of the methods labeled above, while delivering a potato chips-like crispiness we so crave for. 

Despite VF being the perfect tech that satisfies taste and health, most food producers (99%) tend to pair it with sugar syrups and sugar coating (e.g. maltose).  

Why? Sugar coating helps to

• bind different kinds of flavourings to each crisps
• make the crisps look lighter (more appealing) in colour
• adds bulk to the net weight
• reduce breakage
• keep crunchiness much longer in the air (e.g. to be displayed in retail scooping box, packed in clear plastic packaging)
• creates consistent taste across varying banana sources and seasons

As a result, most VF banana crisps in the market contain just 70% banana, with the rest made up of sweeteners and additives. Not just limited to bananas, this type of production practice usually happens in facilities that focus more on mass production numbers, and are more prevalent in China and Taiwan. 

Summary:

Vacuum-frying offers a perfect technology that balances taste and health, but most of such crisps in the market are sugar coated, resulting in a sugar-filled unhealthy snack.

So how does Hey! Chips make its banana crisps? 

Hey! Chips uses VF technology (as above) to create 2-star Great Taste award-winning banana crisps without sugar, flavourings and preservatives. Dehydrating fresh banana slices at just 60-80ºC, we achieve the best natural crunch while preserving some nutrients.  

Using pure and clean ingredients is not as simple as it sounds. While competitors have to rely on sugar and flavourings to produce a commercially-viable snack across the year, Hey! Chips invests in serious efforts to doing everything the long way. 

Unlike others who use unripe bananas and rely on sugar to maintain consistency, Hey! Chips carefully times the ripeness of the bananas and control our sourcing.

Seriously, without being dunked into sugar barrels, Hey! banana crisps are much lighter and crispier, and full of real banana flavour. 

How to differentiate sugar-coated vs pure pure crisps:

• Colour: If they are unnaturally bright and light, something is off. Natural banana crisps should darken slightly during dehydration. 
• Edges: Sugar-coated crisps often have sharp square corners from using unripe bananas. Naturally ripened banana crisps have gentle rounded edges. (Yes! It is much harder to handle ripe bananas)
• Texture: Harder than expected crisps may be sugar coated to give a less breakable structure.
• Taste: Can you taste added sugar? In banana crisps, it may be harder to detect but in veggie crisps, it is often quite bizarre to taste lots of sugar. 
• Ingredients: Check the label for hidden sugars and additives. Look out for possible alternative names of sugars. This could be tricky sometimes.

Summary:

Hey! Chips uses advanced technology and honest ingredients to deliver banana crisps that are natural, tasty and crunchy. No shortcuts. 

Conclusion:

Banana crisps are a convenient snack for all occasions. They are light, easy to pack for school, work, or outdoor occasions. They can be a great source of energy and nutrients, especially when you’re on the go, hiking or refuelling after rigorous exercises.

Compared to fresh bananas, banana crisps are denser in calories. Even with the healthiest processing methods, some nutrient loss is inevitable. Eating fresh bananas will always be the best option from a health standpoint.

That said, when chosen carefully, banana crisps are a great alternative to potato chips and other ultra-processed snacks. For a healthier snacking, avoid deep-fried snacks, read the labels thoroughly and choose options that prioritise real, honest ingredients.