The use of banana leaves as food wrap has long been a tradition in the country.

The basis
of which cannot be easily established, but looking at its appearance, reveal that the leaves have
large surface areas to hold and wrap the food. Thorn (2004) stated that it also helps in enhancing
the flavor of the foods wrapped in banana leaves. But there has not been enough study on the
microbiological qualities of the foods items wrapped in banana leaves and also, ways to extend
the shelf life of banana wrapped foods. Studies have been made but using a variety of the leaves
namely, Thaumatococcus danielli (ewe eran), and Tectona grandis (teak) (Adegunloye et al,
2006; Ojekale et al, 2007).
The aim of this chapter is to provide references for the principles in food preservation and
food spoilage, the different agents of food spoilage and food-borne diseases and the key factors
to address in preventing food spoilage.
The chapter is divided into three parts.
Kakanin or rice-based products usually wrapped in banana leaves locally found in
Visayas are budbod, binagol, moron, bibingka ang puto bumbong. Common among these foods
are the use of glutinous rice and coconut milk such as budbod, moron, and bibingka. Some of the
foods use a variety of rice such as kabog for the budbog kabog, pirurutong for the puto bumbong.
It is commonly observed that foods most likely to show rapid deterioration due to
biological and chemical changes are usually those with high water content. Water activity is only
one of the environmental factors influencing growth of fungi. Their growth and survival will be
influenced by temperature, hydrogen ion concentration, oxygen and carbon dioxide
concentrations, and the presence of preservatives (Pitt and Hocking, 1985). When any of these
factors is suboptimal, the inhibitory effect of reduced aw tends to be enhanced.
The aw levels corresponding to a range of moisture contents of food may be plotted to
provide a water sorption isotherm. This isotherm is useful, not only in showing at what moisture
contents certain desirable or undesirable levels of aw are achieved, but also in indicating what
significance small changes in moisture content will have in terms of aw. Hence, it is a useful
guide to the storage life of foods held at moderate temperatures and preserved only by reduced
aw.
A study investigating the effect of water activity the growth of microorganisms was
already presented in the previous section. Also, a specific study on the effect of water activity

was done by (Abdullah, et. al., 2000). Equilibrium moisture contents of starch-based foods were
determined at different levels of relative humidity using a static desiccator technique. From the
water adsorption isotherms, the critical moisture contents that will not allow fungal growth were
determined for various food products.

Figure 2. The water adsorption isotherm of the different products at T=25C