You purchase a bunch of yellow bananas on the grocery store, allow them to sit for just a few days, as a result of, nicely, life, after which once you lastly attain for one for a snack, you uncover that they’ve already began to rot—a disappointing end result not solely on your stomach, but in addition your pockets.
Bananas could also be scrumptious and nutrient-packed (that sky-high potassium content material? *Chef’s kiss*), however as any fruit fan is aware of, there’s a significant catch: their brief shelf life. To place it bluntly: “They’re not going to final lengthy as soon as you purchase them,” Martin Bucknavage, MS, a senior meals security extension affiliate at Pennsylvania State College, tells SELF.
Positive, you’ll be able to all the time mash up just a few overripe ones to make use of in oatmeal, banana bread, and smoothies—they’ve a sweeter, extra intense taste and an simply blendable texture that truly makes them higher suited to most of these recipes—however there are additionally methods to increase bananas’ seemingly blink-and-you-miss-it window of peak high quality so you have got extra time to get pleasure from them recent too. Listed here are three methods for enhancing their shelf life (for at the very least “a pair days longer,” Bucknavage says) so that they don’t flip mushy and overripe earlier than you have got an opportunity to chow down.
1. Retailer them in a cool, dry place (or within the fridge as soon as they’ve totally ripened).
Excessive temps enhance the exercise of microorganisms and different components that trigger spoilage, so preserving your bananas out of warmth and humidity may help enhance their lifespan. For instance, “you wouldn’t need to put the bananas on a counter the place the solar’s shining by the window and hitting [them],” Bucknavage says. “That’s not going to be useful.”
Ideally, the storage atmosphere needs to be round 54 levels Fahrenheit, in line with Bucknavage: It’s “kind of that magical temperature that prolongs the shelf life with out cold-damaging the fruit,” he says. Whereas that time could also be ultimate, something beneath the conventional room temp in your house (which is probably going considerably hotter than 54 levels presently of yr) will nonetheless assist delay ripening. Relying in your family format, a cupboard, cabinet, or pantry may work nicely. “I retailer mine on my kitchen desk the place it’s away from the sunshine,” Cindy Brison, MS, RDN, an extension educator on the College of Nebraska-Lincoln, tells SELF. Choose a location not too near your oven or fridge, since these “tend to provide off warmth.”
As soon as your banana reaches peak ripeness, you can too purchase your self some further time by stashing it within the fridge. Principally, the decrease temps will decelerate continued maturation within the banana, preserving it for an additional day or two, Bucknavage says. Whereas the coolness will trigger the peel to show black, it received’t injury the fruit inside (like, the half you eat), so don’t freak out over any adjustments in look. “Don’t be afraid of that,” Brison says. “It’s pure.” Simply make certain to not soar the gun: Storing bananas within the fridge earlier than they’re ripe will mess with the ripening course of. (Plus, they’ll find yourself with an off taste and mealy texture, in line with the College of Arkansas.)
2. Wrap their stems and maintain them away from different fruit.
We all know this tip would possibly sound bizarre, however there’s some legit science behind it: You’re limiting the bananas’ publicity to ethylene, a gaseous plant hormone emitted by sure kinds of fruit “that causes fruit to mature,” Bucknavage says. Not solely are bananas among the many kinds of fruit that produce ethylene, they’re additionally notably delicate to it, so minimizing that publicity is possibly the only simplest preservation method.
