can you refrigerate bananas
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Can Bananas Be Refrigerated? – How To Store Bananas
Who doesn’t go bananas for bananas? The sweet, but not too sweet fruit is filling and rich in potassium and other healthy vitamins.
Bananas make the perfect on-the-go snack at any time of the day. The trick is to find a way to always have them on hand without worrying about them over-ripening on your counter.
Can you refrigerate bananas? You can refrigerate ripe bananas to help them stay fresher for longer, but refrigerating unripe bananas will stop the ripening process and cause the peel to turn black. If you put bananas in the fridge after they’ve started to go brown, they will turn to mush even faster. It’s best to refrigerate ripe, but still yellow, bananas for up to two weeks.
However, there are some products on the market that will help your bananas stay fresher for longer. Keep reading for all the info you need to learn how to store bananas to keep them perfectly ripe for as long as possible.
Refrigerating Bananas
We have all gone to the store, bought a larger bunch of bananas than we can eat, and wondered how to use them all. It never fails – when you bring them home, they’re too green, but seemingly overnight turn brown and get mushy.
How do you keep them from turning into a mushy mess? The old rule of storing bananas exclusively on the counter, in a pretty fruit bowl, is dated. It’s time to start keeping our bananas in the fridge!
How to Store Bananas in the Fridge
Bananas are a tropical fruit that need warmth to ripen. Putting the banana in a cold fridge will instantly slow the ripening process. The peel will get spots and turn brown, but the fruit will stay the same as the time you put it in the fridge, prolonging the lifespan of your bananas for an additional week or even two. The most important factor to keep in mind before putting bananas in the refrigerator is to wait until they are perfectly ripe for your tastes.
If you put them in the fridge before they are ripe, they’ll stay green, at least on the inside. The skin will still turn black, but the fruit won’t ripen. Simply place them in the drawer for fruits, making sure the peel is still intact, and you’re done. If you’re storing other fruit with the bananas or opening the drawer frequently, you may want to wrap the stems in plastic wrap, which we’ll talk more about in a minute.
Bananas are a friendly fruit and will gladly lend out their smell and flavor to some of the other things in your fridge, like bread and desserts. If you’re storing bananas in your fridge, make sure all your foods are properly stored in air-tight containers or plastic wrap and you won’t accidentally have a banana-flavored turkey sandwich. Also keep in mind that bananas are delicate fruits and bruise easily, so treat them accordingly.
How Long Do Bananas Last?
As I have shown at the beginning of this post, you can store bananas in the fridge. However, there are more things that you need to know. Check out this table to find out the shelf life of ripe bananas and green bananas.
Do Bananas Go Bad?
Once bananas are not stored properly, or you keep them for too long, they will start to get spoiled. Below are some ways to check whether your bananas are still edible. Read them carefully to prevent being poisoned by your favorite fruit.
Look
Ripe bananas have a bright yellow look with some brown and black spots on them.
Unlike other fruits, having some dark spots does not mean that they are spoiled. Actually, that sign tells you that the bananas are really to eat. However, when their colors turn black, mold appears, and the peels become softer, it is time to get rid of them right away.
Texture
Ripe bananas have firm and fresh flesh. If you feel that they are too soft and mushy, then the bananas are probably spoiled. When you see that your bananas begin to ooze, it means that they lose their firm texture and are not tasty anymore. You should buy some new ones.
Smell
Another thing to check on your bananas is their smells. Good bananas smell very fresh. If your bananas have a sour or musty odor, they are not safe to eat. You should check the scent of the peel as well as the flesh.
The Best Ways to Keep Bananas Fresh
We’ve all been there. After buying a nice green bunch of bananas, you often think you have several days (maybe even a week) to use them all up before they turn brown. But we all know bananas have a tendency to ripen pretty quickly. Perhaps that’s why “Pioneer Woman” star Ree Drummond calls them “evil.”
Fortunately, much like there are hacks for making produce ripen faster, there are simple ways to prolong a banana’s yellow stage. Whether you’re working with unpeeled bananas or their peeled counterparts, here are a few anti-ripening hacks to try.
1. Hang them, away from other produce.
2. Wrap the stems in plastic wrap.
3. Once they ripen, pop them in the fridge.
4. If the bananas are peeled, add citrus.
5. Give the bananas a vinegar bath.
6. For longer periods of time, freeze
Storing bananas at room temperature
Alternatively to the refrigerator, you could always opt for leaving your bananas at room temperature. This is our personal preference as you don’t have to worry about waiting for the bananas to turn ripe before moving them to the refrigerator.
Bananas are a tropical fruit that needs warmth to grow and ripen. While your kitchen might not be as warm as the tropical climates the bananas are used to, it is still a better temperature than the refrigerator is offering.
It can be as simple as leaving your bunch of bananas laying out in your pantry or inside a fruit bowl. However, bananas are one of the most finicky fruits and they bruise very easily.
To avoid this you can opt for a banana tree that uses the stalks to mimic the natural position if the bananas were still attached to their trees.
Banana trees are often made from metal and they prevent too much pressure from bruising the bottom of the bananas. The tree also keeps the bananas away from other products in the fruit bowl so that none of it goes bad prematurely.
Storing your bananas at room temperature makes it much easier to see when the fruit is unripe, perfectly ripened, and overripe. If the fruit has turned brown and feels soft to touch, you know that it’s over-ripened and gone bad.
This is different from keeping them in the refrigerator as the bananas might look brown but still be perfectly ripened. The guessing game is eliminated if you keep your bananas at room temperature. However, the shelf life is bound to decrease if you don’t move them to the refrigerator once they’re ripened.
How supermarkets keep bananas fresh
Supermarkets keep bananas fresh by importing them while they are still green. Upon arriving, green bananas are sprayed with ethylene gas to turn them into yellow bananas quickly. Bananas are displayed as soon as they are yellow, making them look like they have just been picked from banana trees.
Did you know that people in the US consume about 6.4 billion pounds of bananas every year?
And did you know that up to 94% of bananas were imported from banana-producing countries?
Because bananas tend to ripen quickly, it is a waste of money to order ripe bananas from counties miles away — they will get to the US overripe or already rotten. Once green bananas hit US stores, they are exposed to ethylene gas to make them ripe all of a sudden. Later, we will talk more about ethylene gas — so keep on reading.
Can You Refrigerate Peeled Bananas?
Peeled bananas can be refrigerated to keep them from turning brown. Sliced bananas can be kept in the fridge, too, for the same reason. They should be placed in an airtight container or a Ziploc bag beforehand. Peeled or sliced bananas may be lightly coated with lemon juice.
What causes peeled or sliced bananas to turn brown is exposure to oxygen in the air. It’s for the same reason why apples, pears, peaches and other fruits turn brown when peeled, sliced or chopped. To delay the browning of peeled or sliced bananas, they can be coated with lemon juice. Ascorbic acid or vitamin C in lemon juice is the one that will react with the oxygen in the air rather than bananas.
For as long as there is still ascorbic acid from lemon juice, peeled or sliced bananas won’t turn brown. Peeled or sliced bananas lightly coated with lemon juice should be stored in the refrigerator for best results. Needless to say, the presence of a little lemon juice will change the taste of bananas to a certain extent. Due to this, you will have to choose between eating brown bananas that taste like ripe bananas and beautiful ripe bananas that kind of taste like lemon juice.
