Bananas are tasty yet notorious for going brown too quickly, and the reason may be that you are storing them in the wrong place.
Research from Wrap, an environmental reduce waste organisation, states that British families throw away 1.4 million bananas each day at a cost of £80 million a year.
The figures, which were published by the supermarket Sainsbury’s, say that 30 percent of Brits throw away bananas if there is a bruise or any black spots on the yellow skin.
If your bananas are going black or spotty too quickly then you may be storing them in a fruit bowl, which is one of the worst places to keep bananas if you want them to stay yellow and fresh.
Bananas, like many other fruits, produce a growth-stimulating hormone called ethylene gas, and when all ethylene-producing foods are stored together it causes them all to begin rotting at a faster rate.
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Emma Mason, a cook, baker, and food expert, said: “Even once they’ve been picked, bananas continue to produce ethylene gas from the stems, and that is what ripens the rest of the fruit. “
On her website Kitchen Mason Emma explained that to keep bananas fresh they must be stored in a cool place away from other fruit, but should never be placed in the fridge.
Emma wrote: “Don’t put them in the fridge! They’re not used to cold climates (as they grow in hot countries) so chilling them stops the production of ethylene gas. Meaning, they won’t ripen and worse – the skin will go black. Not very appetising!”
The key to storing bananas is to store them somewhere in the kitchen which is cool, but not too cold or warm, and also keep them away from other fruits or vegetables.
You can also wrap up their stems with clingfilm to stop the ethylene gas from being released, which can make bananas last 10 days longer or even more.
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Emma said: “To keep bananas fresh for longer, wrap the stems in cling film to stop the ethylene gas from getting to the rest of the fruit and ripening it too quickly.
“To make them last the longest – split the bunch into single bananas and wrap each stem individually.”
Emma showed that bananas will keep fresh much longer when wrapped up. She decided to experiment by storing one bunch of bananas using the cling-firm method and another stored without.
After 10 days the cling-film bananas were still yellow and looked fine while the other bunch of bananas were visibility blackening and going spotty.
Emma said: “The conclusion of this experiment is, if you wrap the stems of your bananas, they will last much longer and you’re far less likely to throw them away.
“This is not only better for your bank balance but it’s better for our planet too!”
