If your family is like most working families, you don't have time to go grocery shopping more than once a week to make sure you have the best selection. This is very true when it comes to fresh fruit. Most fruit can stay fresh longer in the fridge, but bananas often turn brown before the end of the week. This will just turn into a fight between you and your toddler over whether or not it's okay to eat a bruised banana (*child-like spouses can be used instead of toddlers).
Most of us buy bananas when they are still green or just about to be ready to eat. Like avocados, they only last a short time before they are too ripe and can only be used to make banana bread (or this other crafty trick). Luckily, there's a little-known way to keep bananas fresh longer, and duct tape, of all things, is the key. Cover the top of the banana bunch with a square of duct tape (where the stems all come together). Try to get rid of as many air bubbles as you can. Then, take another piece of duct tape, this one longer, and wrap it tightly around the same area. The tape stops the ethylene gas from leaving the bananas, which is the same gas that makes the bananas ripen when it is released into the air. By stopping it from getting out, you can keep your bananas fresh longer. In fact, studies have shown that it keeps them yellow for at least a week.They are healthy and popular fruits, but it is important to store them in the right way so they don't turn black too quickly.
You may have noticed that bananas at the grocery store are often sold in bunches with plastic wrap wrapped around the stem.
The banana stems are where most of the ethylene gas comes out.
As they ripen, bananas that are grown organically give off ethylene gas. To keep them fresh, you can wrap the stems in plastic wrap to stop ethylene gas from escaping. A small piece of plastic wrap could help you do this. If the plastic wrap doesn't stay on well, tie a rubber band around the outside. At the late green or breaker stage, the amount of ethylene in many climacteric fruits like apple, banana, and tomato goes up a lot.
When there is a lot of ethylene, the chlorophyll is destroyed and other colors, like black, are made. Because of this, the peel of a ripe banana has the usual color.
Many enzymes that have to do with aging become more active. Starch, organic acids, and sometimes even fats are broken down and turned into natural sugars.
The plastic wrap helps keep the ethylene gas that bananas naturally give off as they ripen in check.
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