Bananas can go off very quickly, but there are ways to ensure they stay fresher for longer. An expert at Tesco has shared some advice on how to keep them firm and delicious
Bananas seem to be perfect, ripe and firm one minute – you blink, and they’ve gone black and mushy.
There are still many ways you can utilise them when they’ve gone past their best, such as in banana bread, but if you’re looking to munch them as a healthy snack without wasting your hard-earned cash, Tesco has issued advice on how to keep them fresher for longer.
The supermarket advised shoppers to “store the [fruit] right” to make them last longer. A spokesperson said: “Store bananas on their own as the gases they produce will cause other fruit to ripen and spoil more quickly.
“Keep them at room temperature as refrigerating will make the skin turn black, and the bananas will transfer their smell to the rest of the fridge’s contents.
“When they ripen, bananas soften and change colour as the starch breaks down and is converted to sugar. Unripe green bananas aren’t particularly appealing when raw, but can be used for cooking.”
Banana storage may have not even crossed your mind before, but by keeping the fruit fresh, you’ll waste less and be able to buy them less often – saving you money in the long run.
Food hygiene expert Tash Blythe believes bananas should not be kept in the fruit bowl, reports Birmingham Live, but instead, should be stored on a countertop.
Ideally, “somewhere at room temperature and away from any moisture, sunlight and overly warm temperatures whilst ripening”. This is because “anywhere too warm will speed up the ripening process, so avoid keeping them near ovens or warm appliances”.
Another reliable method is to use cling film. All you need to do is wrap film around the stem of the banana to keep the bunch fresh for longer. You could also try the water hack if you were looking for alternatives, like @that40yearguy did.
He submerged the stalks of one bunch of bananas in a tub of water and left them for a week beside another bunch. He said: “I’ve never done a week-long test, we’re going to try this banana hack to see if they stay fresh for longer.
“I’m going to put three bananas in the water [stalk down] and I’m going to leave the other three sitting there. We’ll come back in a week or so and see what they look like.”
Dustin actually returned to his bananas 12 days later and was stunned to find that the bananas that were submerged in water were much fresher than those that had been left by themselves. The bananas in the water were still covered in brown spots as they had continued to ripen, but they were solid and firm.
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