cultivation in Indonesia generates substantial agricultural waste, particularly from banana stems, which are typically discarded despite their nutritional potential. This study examined whether a targeted educational intervention could influence consumer sensory acceptance of banana stem chips, a zero-waste food innovation derived from banana pseudostems (

). A quasi-experimental single-group pre-test–post-test design was conducted with 221 domestic tourists in Yogyakarta and Malang. Participants evaluated six sensory attributes (aroma, appearance, color, taste, texture, and overall impression) using a five-point hedonic scale (1 = strongly dislike; 5 = strongly like). The measurement instrument demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.853 pre-test; 0.795 post-test). Following the pre-test, participants attended a 5-10-minute educational session featuring posters and verbal explanations that highlighted the nutritional benefits, zero-waste principles, and environmental implications of banana stem utilization. Paired-sample t-tests revealed statistically significant improvements across all sensory attributes after the intervention (p < 0.01). The largest mean increase was observed for taste (+0.68), followed by aroma (+0.55) and overall impression (+0.55), while appearance (+0.45), texture (+0.46), and color (+0.36) also improved significantly. These findings indicate that brief sustainability and nutrition-oriented information can positively influence sensory evaluations of unconventional, waste-derived food products, even when the product formulation remains unchanged. The results provide empirical evidence that educational framing can reduce perceptual barriers to suboptimal foods and support the market introduction of zero-waste innovations in emerging economies.

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