There’s a short window during which bananas are perfectly yellow and ripe, making them hard to buy in bulk.
The brightly coloured fruit is either under-ripe – when it’s green and firm, or overly mushy inside with brown skin.
While it’s true that this is the case no matter how bananas are stored, it’s easy to slow down the ripening process by making one simple change.
According to Thanh Truong, a fruiterer and cook based in Melbourne, extending the shelf life of bananas at home comes down to one simple food storage hack.
Speaking previously to ABC Everyday he explained that a common cause of the fruit going black or spotty too quickly is storing it in a fruit bowl – one of the worst places to keep bananas if you want them to stay yellow and fresh.
Thanh explained that keeping all your fruit in one bowl “isn’t the best way to keep fruit fresh”, as they have “competing interests”.
While some foods like apples are best kept cold in the fridge, bananas need a warmer environment – ideally room temperature – to thrive.
A naturally occurring gas known as ethylene plays a huge part in the longevity of bananas, which are “climacteric” fruits.
According to post-harvest physiologist Hannah James, this means that they ripen after they’ve been picked.
As they turn from green to yellow and eventually, brown, bananas emit ethylene which can speed up their ripening, and that of nearby produce.
Hannah said: “Plants will respond to ethylene that’s produced by other plants. If you’ve got bananas, apples and peaches together in a fruit bowl, they will potentially all ripen faster than you would like [because of the ethylene].”
Instead of hanging bananas from the hook above a full fruit bowl, keep them elsewhere in the kitchen.
Buying a separate fruit bowl specifically for bananas is a good idea, or nail a hook underneath a kitchen cupboard to create a fixed hanging spot. However, it should be noted that these should be positioned well away from heat sources like an oven, microwave or air fryer.
Speaking previously to Express.co.uk, Gary Ellis, director at CE Safety explained: “If you can separate bananas up, this will also help as the ethylene gas can spread from one to another.
“You can also use cling film on the end of your bananas once separate to slow down the ripening process. This will keep them fresher for longer as it traps the ethylene gas.”
According to Gary, this method can preserve bananas for up to 10 days.
