Bananas are loved for their unique flavour and health benefits, but their soft texture makes them prone to bruising.
Aside from being easily damaged when dropped or even stored incorrectly, bananas also tend to turn brown within just a few days, often before they can be fully enjoyed.
Some people have called upon clever methods like buying bananas very underripe to make them last longer, but one food expert has an alternative method.
Gary Ellis, director at CE Safety claimed that bananas will last for approximately 10 days by following his method of preserving bananas once they hit peak ripeness.
He previously told Express.co.uk: “Where you should store your bananas to stop them going prematurely brown has always been a hot topic of conversation.”
Pointing out that ethylene gas, a substance naturally emitted by bananas, is the driving force for making bananas turn brown, Gary noted that it is the very thing that needs to be controlled.
To do this, he suggested following the common advice to store bananas away from other fruits – particularly those that “release excess ethylene gas”. This includes peaches, tomatoes, avocados, figs and apples, all of which can significantly speed up the rate at which bananas deteriorate.
The food expert cautioned against the common placement of bananas in fruit bowls, particularly those with hangers. “Fruit bowls with banana hangers over the top of them may look pretty, but these are just going to make your bananas ripen faster as they are near other fruits,” he said.
Instead he put forward the idea of using the fridge which can actually prolong the life of bananas, not just stop ripening in its tracks.
The CE Safety chief said that to avoid the dreaded black banana skins many will have experienced when refrigerating bananas, they must be popped in the fridge “as soon as they’re at the perfect ripeness”.
He warned: “If you put them in too soon, they’ll stay very green. Too late and they will turn brown and mushy.”
According to the US Department of Agriculture, bananas that are chilled too soon could experience “chilling injury,” which causes the bananas to have a bitter flavour, discolouration, and failure to ripen.
Highlighting the life cycle of a banana, Gary pointed out that depending on storage methods, a banana’s transition from green to yellow to brown could span one to two weeks.
Ideally, if a banana shows signs of ripening by day five, it should reach peak ripeness around day seven, at which point it should be refrigerated.
Any banana with a broken skin should be kept out of the fridge, however, as it may already have been contaminated with microbial pests.
