How to preserve bananas: 8 tips to keep them fresh for a long time without blackening them

The banana is a delicious tropical fruit that we can buy all year round; it is excellent for a healthy and nutritious snack. It is a nutritious fruit, very loved; however it is important to preserve it in the best way, to prevent it from turning black too quickly.

8 tips to preserve bananas without turning them black

The banana is a fruit that continues its ripening even after harvesting. This is due to the emission of a gas, the ethylene, which stimulates the formation of amylase, the enzyme that breaks down the starch into sugars. The production of ethylene is usually favored by the lack of ventilation and the proximity of the banana to apples or tomatoes.

– Preserve unripe bananas at room temperature: do not preserve them in the refrigerator or freezer before they fully ripen, which would prevent the bananas from ripening in the right way even if you bring them back to room temperature.

– If you want to accelerate the ripening, place them in paper bags, and then add an apple which will speed up the production of ethylene, otherwise put the bananas in the fruit bowl next to other ripe fruits.

– As for ripe bananas, keep them at room temperature if you want to consume them in a few days; keep them in the refrigerator instead when you notice stains on the skin, so you will avoid that they quickly become too ripe.

– To preserve for a long time the freshness of ripe bananas of at least 3-4 days, keep them attached to each other, in a bunch, and remove them delicately and without damaging the others; if you detach them immediately after buying them, the ripening of each banana accelerates.

– Another tip to preserve the freshness is to keep the bananas close to unripe fruits: for example an unripe pear or avocado. Obviously avoid preserving bananas near apples, because this would further speed up the ripening process.

– If you do not want to blacken the cut bananas, that you have to use for a fruit salad or to stuff a cake, sprinkle the banana slices with juice of lemon, lime or pineapple, and let them rest in a container. The vitamin C contained in these fruits will work as an antioxidant, even if this could alter the taste of the banana pulp. To avoid this problem, you can treat the banana before removing the peel: place it in boiling water and keep it at rest until the peel will darken. At this point, drain it and immerse it immediately in cold water, before peeling it and cutting it into slices.

– If you do not want to blacken a banana with the peel, one of the most useful tips is to use the transparent film; wrap the petiole of the fruit with the food film, thus preventing the leakage of ethylene and slowing down the process of ripeness. This trick can be useful both to keep the bananas green longer and to postpone the aging process of already ripe bananas, without making them black.

– If you have eaten only half a banana, keep the other half in the refrigerator, wrapped in aluminum foil, and consume it within 2 days.