It can be frustrating to buy a big bunch of bananas only for them to spoil within a few days, but this often happens because you are storing them wrong. Ellen Christian, the founder of Confessions of an Overworked Mom, has shared a big mistake most people make when storing bananas is placing them in a bowl with all their other fruit.
Ellen said: “As vegetables and fruits ripen, they release gas. This gas can cause other vegetables and fruits, including bananas, to ripen more quickly as well.” Bananas are tasty and sweet as they produce a natural gas called ethylene which speeds up the ripening process in produce to make it more flavourful.
However, when bananas are stored with other fruit it will cause too much ethylene to be produced, and the gas will hang in the air to speed up the ripening process so everything begins to rot
Not only will this waste your money but at this time of year the smell of rotting fruit can attract fruit flies and other unwanted pest, so it is best to take bananas out of your fruit bowl.
Instead, the best way to store bananas and keep them fresh is to wrap up their stems in cling film.
Ellen said: “Bananas release ethylene from the stems. This ethylene causes the yellow skin to get brown spots. If you wrap the stems individually in plastic wrap, you can slow down the release of ethylene which will make them last longer.”
All you need to do is wrap each banana stems tightly in cling film and then place the somewhere far away from the fruit bowl in your kitchen.
This will greatly slow down ripening, so the bananas will stay yellow for up to a week longer and you do not have to worry about food waste.
However, if you want to extend their shelf life even further then you can store bananas in the fridge.
Many people believe you cannot store bananas in cold temperatures as it does turn the peel black, but this is only cosmetic as the fruit inside will stay fresh and firm.
Ellen said: “If you don’t mind the black skin, you can store them in the refrigerator to slow down the ripening process. The inside will still be fine. It’s only the peels that turn dark.”
It should be noted that only yellow ripe bananas can be stored in the fridge as it completely stops them ripening completely.
This means that green unripened bananas stored in the fridge will not be able to develop, which means they will stay starchy and rubbery forever.
If you wrap the stems in cling film while they are still green, and then store the bananas in the fridge once they have turned yellow, you can keep them fresh for up to two weeks longer than they would normally last.
