Commercial banana alternatives to become a necessity for manufacturers?

By Carol Wiley | December 10, 2015

Banana is a booming ingredient in food products ranging from cereals to cookies to energy drinks, thanks to consumer perception of the fruit as healthy. But should food manufacturers start to make alternative ingredient plans in case a lethal fungus wipes out commercial bananas?

This threat from the fungus, called Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense and also known as the Tropical Race 4 strain of Panama Disease, isn't imminent, but it is a possibility, according to researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Currently, there's no way to destroy the fungus, it's easily spread, and it remains in the soil so farmers cannot grow new banana crops.

Food manufacturers have time to move to replacement ingredients or develop alternative products if this pans out. A possible scenario is first a banana shortage, with accompanying higher prices, then either a complete loss of bananas or researchers will develop a replacement commercial banana.

A shortage may necessitate allocation, as Libby's did this year with its pumpkin after heavy rains reduced harvest to make sure pumpkin would be available for the holidays. "We’re carefully managing our distribution across the country and to our retailers through 'allocation,'" Roz O’Hearn, corporate and brand affairs director at Nestle, told Food Dive.

Perhaps some innovative companies will attempt to make banana replacers, in the vein of current egg replacement efforts due to shortages caused by Avian flu. The much more serious problem is that in some parts of the world bananas are a diet staple that contributes significantly to daily calorie intake.

Dealing with the problem

The current goal is to prevent the fungus from spreading from already affected locations in China, Jordan, Mozambique, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Australia. In December 2014, the FAO announced a framework for a global program to work on "three main fronts of action: preventing future outbreaks, managing existing cases, and strengthening international collaboration and coordination among institutions, researchers, governments and producers."

Most bananas imported to the U.S., and three-fourths of all commercial bananas, come from Latin America, which isn't yet affected by the fungus. In June, Dole Food Co. and Fresh Del Monte told Bloomberg the disease hasn't yet affected areas from which the companies get their bananas. Dole said it’s looking at how to develop a disease-resistant banana, while Fresh Del Monte said it is working to keep contaminated material out of its farms and container yards.

Commercial bananas are of the Cavendish variety, a cultivar created to replace the Gros Michel that was wiped out in the 1950s by an earlier version of Panama Disease. However, Cavendish bananas are clones, and these genetically identical plants, called monocultures, are highly susceptible to disease.  Some sources blame the current problem on the industry's decision to use a monoculture, rather than introducing genetic diversity into banana crops, after the decimation of the Gros Michel.

Currently, no commercial replacement exists if the Cavendish goes the way of the Gros Michel, and developing a new banana cultivar requires major investments in research and development. Options under consideration include hybrids and GMOs. Wild bananas may also be an option, but they tend to be pungent or too delicate to survive shipping.

The FAO notes, "Developing new banana varieties is not an easy task and takes time due to sterility problems, so scientists have to make extra effort to develop types that are preferable and disease resistant at the same time. One promising banana in this respect, known as GCTCV-219, resembles the Cavendish banana in both taste and shape." The GCTCV-219 has undergone field trials in China and the Phillippines.

"The current TR4 epidemic and inherent global attention should be the wake-up call for these much needed strategy changes," according to the researchers at Wageningen University.