A very simple trick to slow down banana rot
Buying a larger amount of bananas often ends up with disappointment, ripening too early and starting to rot before we can eat them. But there is a simple solution that can help your bananas last longer and remain fresh.
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Bananas
Ellen Christian, founder of ‘Confessions of An Overworked Mom’ blog, shared useful tips on one of the most common mistakes when storing bananas: their saving in a bowl with another fruit.
– As vegetables and fruits ripen, they drop gas called ethylene, explains Ellen.
– That gas stimulates even faster maturation of other fruits and vegetables nearby, including bananas, Ellen continues.
Bananas are a great source of ethylene in themselves, which means that they can significantly accelerate the maturation of everything around them. When combined with another fruit in the same bowl, there is an excess ethylene that results in faster rotting bananas and other fruits.
Apart from that this is not good for your budget, the smell of rotting fruit in summer can expand with space and attract fruit flies and other unwanted insects. That is why it is wise to keep the bananas separate from the rest of the fruit.
Plastic foil or refrigerator?
In order to slow down the ripening and prolong the freshness of the banana, Ellen recommends wrapping their stems with plastic foil.
– Bananas drop ethylene precisely from the sticks. This gas causes brown spots on the bark. If you wrap each steep separately with plastic wrap, you will slow down the discharge of ethylene and bananas will remain fresh longer, says Ellen.
This simple trick can help your bananas remain yellow for up to a week longer, which significantly reduces food throwing.
If you want to prolong the durability of bananas even more, you may need to consider the refrigerator. Contrary to popular opinion, the guarding of bananas in the cold is not really a bad idea. Although the bark will blacke out, the inside of the fruit will remain fresh and firm.
– If you don’t mind the black bark, feel free to put the bananas in the refrigerator. The interior will remain good, dark only the bark, Ellen advises.
It is important to note that this method applies only to the already mature, yellow bananas. Green bananas will not ripen in the refrigerator, but remain hard, starchy and without a characteristic sweetness.
Best practice? Wrap the stems while the bananas are still green, and when you yellow, transfer them to the refrigerator. This way you can enjoy perfectly fresh bananas and up to two weeks longer than the usual deadline.
