Going Bananas: How to Keep Them Fresher for Longer

Bananas are the kind of fruit we love to hate and hate to love. While fresh bananas are great for your body, they can rot pretty quickly after you bring them home.  Thankfully, we’re about to let you in on a little secret (or five) on how storage solutions that will help you prolong their lifetime. With these tips, you won’t have to worry about your bananas going bad before you eat them, and you can easily keep your fruit preserved for longer.

An excellent way to keep your bananas ripe for longer is to store them in the fridge once the peels start losing their yellow color. A lower temperature will help preserve the fruit’s freshness, so even if the banana’s outside is a little brown, the fruit itself will still be delicious.

The chemical compound, ethylene, is responsible for the ripening of bananas and is released from the stems of the fruit. Fortunately, you can slow the release of this gas if you wrap the stems. You can use saran wrap and cover each one firmly, which will buy you an extra few days of banana goodness.

If you like bananas in slices, consider squeezing some citrus juice on them. By doing this, you’ll slow down the oxidation process. If you store them in an air-tight container in the fridge, it’s a great way to preserve them if you don’t wish to eat the slices immediately away.

Another way to stop ethylene from acting so quickly is to put the bananas on a hook. By doing this, you will allow a higher flow of oxygen around the fruit, holding back some of the ethylene. This will also prevent the bananas from bruising.

Many fruits produce ethylene gas, so it’s a smart idea to keep all your fresh produce distant from one another. Doing this will prevent your bananas, and the rest of your fruit for that matter, from rotting sooner than need be.