Discarded banana is a valuable feed ingredient for poultry feed formulations.  However, due to the presence of resistant starches, inclusion of more than 10% banana meal in poultry rations reduces the growth performance.  The objective of this study was to determine whether higher levels of banana meal could be included in broiler diets if raw banana is cooked before being processed into meal.  Discarded banana (Cavendish) collected at harvesting was processed into two types of banana meals. Cooked banana meal was prepared by cooking banana at 100^oC for 15 minutes and subsequent drying. Uncooked banana meal was prepared by drying at 80⁰C for three days.  Giving a 2 x 4 factorial arrangement, 144 broiler chicks in 48 cages received one of the eight experimental diets containing either cooked or uncooked banana meal at 0, 10, 20 or 30% ad libitum from day 21-42.  Birds fed cooked banana meal were significantly heavier on day 28 and 35.  Live weight on day 42, weight gain, feed intake or feed conversion efficiency were not affected either by the type or level of banana meal and their interaction.  Cooked banana meal increased the weights of the crop and liver significantly.  Weight of the small intestine, proventriculus, gizzard abdominal fat pad and the fat free tibia ash contents were not affected by the dietary treatments.  It was concluded that uncooked banana meal produced using peeled raw banana can be included up to 30% in nutritionally balanced broiler finisher diets without any adverse effects on performance.

Key words: Banana meal, Broiler, Cooked, Performance, Uncooked