Recently I had a question - how and where to store bananas so that they remain fresh and tasty. I found the answers. I’ll try and help you figure out how to store bananas correctly.

How to keep bananas fresh?

Bananas are a perishable product. But, despite the fact that their price is very attractive, buying them for the future is undesirable. However, even several purchased fruits must be stored correctly to prevent darkening and spoilage.

Rule 1. Optimal storage conditions

1. Best of all, these fruits will be stored at a temperature of +13 ... +14 ° C.  In this case, sudden changes in temperature should be avoided.
2. Ideal air humidity  for storage of bananas - 85-90%. If you have a basement or cellar, store them there.
3. Air circulation.It is best to keep these fruits in a well-ventilated area.
4. Whole clusters last longerif you wrap the leg in scotch tape or polyethylene.

  How to save bananas - so as not to blacken? Very simple - wrap stationery tape on their legs

Bananas cannot be stored in a plastic bag - it retains moisture and can cause fruit to rot.

Rule 2. Maturity

You, of course, noticed that in the store you can buy bananas of different colors. And this indicator must be taken into account during storage:

1. Green- unripe fruits. Their clusters are rather dense and difficult to separate. The pulp of green fruits is not very sweet and has a slight smack of grass. It is these bananas that last as long as possible and ripen in the process.

1. Yellow- ripe fruits, completely ready to eat. They have a pleasant aroma, taste and texture.

1. Darkened with black spots  - overripe fruits that can be eaten.

Rule 3. Features of storing yellow fruit in the peel

Is it possible to store bananas in the refrigerator? A logical question, but not so simple. Fruits of varying degrees of maturity require special conditions and shelf life.

Simple instructions will help you understand all the intricacies, and act correctly.

Picture	Storage Features
	Green fruit storage: In no case should green fruits be kept in the refrigerator or freezer. They can be left at room temperature and allowed to ripen. To ripen gradually and evenly,  it’s best to place a bunch of green bananas in a dark paper bag for five days. The temperature should not be higher than 20 ° C. If you put bananas next to ripe apples,the fruits will ripen faster. After the bananas turn yellow  they can be placed in a fruit vase and stored at room temperature.
	Yellow fruit storage: Choose a cool placeaway from direct sunlight. The whole bunch for convenience of storage can be divided into separate fruits. It is advisable to wrap each leg with tape or foil.  - This is to prevent damage to the fruit. If you put an unripe pear or avocado next to the yellow bananas,  this will help slow down the overripe banana and keep it yellow.
	Storage of overripe fruits: Overripe fruits should be refrigerated.  There they will darken evenly, and the flesh will remain dense and taste good. But it’s best to eat such fruits right away  after purchase and do not store for more than a day.

Rule 4. Features storage peeled bananas

In some cases, you can store bananas in a refrigerator in a peeled form.

Picture	Storage method
	In the open air, fruits prepared for salad or slicing quickly darken, and when served on the table may look unappetizing. In this case, it will help lemon juice or pineapple vinegar. Just sprinkle the exposed parts of the sliced \u200b\u200bfruit, and their color will remain unchanged for two hours.
	Peeled fruits and all strings can be stored in the freezer  in sealed plastic containers. For convenience, they can be cut. The shelf life of this can last up to six months. However, after defrosting such bananas will be suitable only for  do-it-yourself mashed potatoes and other desserts.

What you should pay attention to?

• Bananas do not tolerate direct exposure  sources of artificial heat or sunlight. They do not sing, but immediately deteriorate.
• If the ripe fruit has gray spots or traces of mold -this indicates a violation of storage or transport regulations. Buying such fruits is not worth it - it can be hazardous to health.
• If you often get ripe bananas, think about buying a special stand for storing them.

Bananas are a favorite treat of fruit flies. If you have these at home, it is best to keep the fruits in a sealed paper bag or in the refrigerator.

Summary

Now you know that to keep bananas in the refrigerator or not, depends mainly on their degree of maturity, as well as the purpose and shelf life. Useful video in this article will help you more clearly understand all the details. And if you have any questions - ask them in the comments, we will sort it out together.

The gifts of the fields of distant tropical countries have long ceased to be exotic in our area, and bananas, it seems, will soon be able to compete in price with a banal domestic potato. Therefore, there is every reason to give this tasty and healthy product more space in the daily diet. The only problem is that bananas have a relatively short shelf life, turning literally in a week from a yellow elastic fruit into a brown soft one it is not clear what.

But there is, there is a simple way to save humanity from banana deceit! And we will tell you about him now.

Before giving this little advice, you need to take a short digression into the technological chain that precedes the appearance of bananas on our tables.

Bananas are torn off and transported by the sea in a completely green, unsuitable state. Upon arrival at the warehouses in the ports of destination, the fruits undergo a gassing procedure that is specifically designed to activate the ripening process. To do this, bananas are placed in a special chamber where they warm up to 20 degrees, and then the chamber is filled with "banana gas" - a mixture of nitrogen (95%) and ethylene (5%). This starts the process of rapid ripening, which allows bananas to appear before us on store shelves in yellow and cute form in 3-5 days.

The main catalyst for ripening is ethylene gas, which is released mainly through the stems and when it enters other parts of the fruit (or any other fruit or vegetables nearby), this leads to their ripening as quickly as possible. This article suggests wrapping a banana leg in plastic wrap to prevent gas leakage and inhibit fruit spoilage.

The most interesting thing is that it really works. A banana wrapped in this way withstood a whole week on the windowsill with virtually no signs of aging. Knowing the effect of ethylene on bananas, one can easily derive the formula for rapid ripening. If you have managed to buy a bunch of green bananas, then just stack them in one plastic bag with several apples. They emit the same gas that is used to ripen bananas.

Well, if your loved ones have already eaten bananas and they do not even want to see them, then there is a way to make them look at these fruits again with great interest. Just take a toothpick and draw with the help of extrusion on the peel everything that is enough for your creative abilities. Starting from banal hearts and names (children love to eat signed bananas), to real pictures.

Banana is one of the most beloved fruits, which has gained popularity in almost all countries of the world. They began to eat it long before products such as potatoes, rice, sugarcane. They are valued for their delicate, slightly sweet taste, for their rich vitamin and mineral composition. It is believed that this perennial herb prolongs youth, as it is a good antioxidant and helps strengthen the nervous and vascular systems.

Unfortunately, this treat spoils too quickly. Their delicate peel and flesh are subject to darkening, rotting and deformation during transportation. Therefore, both the sellers and the hostesses often face the question: “How to preserve bananas so that they do not blacken as long as possible, preserve the integrity of the structure, their pleasant taste and useful properties?” We suggest talking about how simple methods and affordable means extend the life of everyone's favorite fruit.

Banana harvesting process

The fruits of a banana tree, intended not for the domestic market, but for export to other countries, are usually picked green, unripe. There are several reasons for this:

• ripe and ripe bananas are stored for a few days, and the goal of exporters is to extend the shelf life to 40 days;
• soft ripe fruit is easily damaged when laying and loading, the peel quickly blackens, and the pulp turns into pulp, losing both taste and nutritional qualities;
• it is believed that fruits ripened not on the plantation, but in the ripped form, are more fragrant and sweet;
• bananas with their aroma attract rodents, which in massive raids destroy a significant part of the crop.

Storage methods

Mistresses need to remember - the better the integrity of the banana structure is preserved, the longer it will not go bad. Before buying, check if the fruit is damaged, whether there are cracks on the peel and dark spots. It is desirable that the skin is firm, resilient. When buying, take good care of delicate fruits, try not to drop them, do not put heavy products on top so that bananas do not crumple. In the bag, bananas should lie on top. From the shelf it is better to take them by the bundle of a bunch, so that the fruits do not come off at the base.

If you plan to eat bananas on the same day, get yellow, ripe. If you take it for the future, you want to present it to the guests in a few days, give preference to green fruits that will go through the ripening process in your home.

How to speed up ripening

The method of storing bananas at home directly depends on the task. If you want to accelerate the ripening of the fruits, leave them at room temperature (away from the fire), putting them in a paper bag with a couple of ripe apples, pears or avocados. Due to the fact that fruits will emit ethylene gas, the ripening of bananas will be faster. Suitable for the ripening process is a warm, but moist and dark place. The optimum temperature is 18-20 degrees. When storing bananas, the brushes should not be torn.

What you don’t have to do is put the bananas in an airtight plastic bag. Due to the vapors that accumulate in the bag, the fruits rot very quickly.

The ripening period of unripe bananas is usually 4 days. During this period, the light green peel will turn yellow, and the flesh will become sweet, soft and fragrant. After ripening, the bananas are cleaned in a cool room.

Save for a long time

If the task is to delay the ripening of bananas, and even more so, their blackening, store the fruits in a cool, damp room, but not in the refrigerator. In this case, the optimum temperature will be 13-15 degrees. A great option is to hang a bunch of fruits in the basement or keep them in the pantry. Why is refrigeration not suitable? If the storage temperature is below 10-12 degrees, small dark brown spots appear on the peel of the fruit. Naturally, at the same time, the aesthetic appearance of fruits is lost, their spoilage is accelerated. Surely you have noticed that bananas “speckled” are sold much cheaper on the market. Avoid storing bananas in the immediate vicinity of the stove, radiators, and avoid direct sunlight.

So that the bananas do not ripen very quickly, each leg of them needs to be wrapped with cling film, which is fixed with tape. Thanks to this simple procedure, the fruit will release ethylene gas and, accordingly, the ripening process will last for several days. Do not store bananas near other fruits or vegetables: such a neighborhood is fraught with accelerated ripening and rotting of bananas, the structure of which is affected by the ethylene gas released by these fruits. Isolate the darkened fruits, they emit more gas, thereby infecting the fruits that are nearby.

  If, however, the bananas are blackened, this does not indicate damage to the fetus inside, but about the breakdown of the skin pigment. Since the appearance can no longer be saved, in this situation, the fruits should be refrigerated, in which the circulation of ethylene gas will slow down, which means that the flesh will not rot for a while. Due to the unaesthetic appearance, it is no longer possible to offer guests such a treat, although they are quite edible. Therefore, it is better to use them for making sauces, cocktails, pie fillings, as a replenishment for yogurt, ice cream. For example, it’s incredibly easy to prepare delicious

Freeze bananas

There are situations when after the buffet there is a sufficient amount of peeled bananas. Place them in a plastic container with a lid to restrict air access to the fruit and keep for another 2 days. You can freeze bananas in a peel or without. The yellow peel in the freezer will definitely turn black, but the flesh will remain light and edible. The shelf life of frozen bananas is 2-3 months at temperatures from -18 and below. Fruits are recommended to be frozen in plastic food containers or plastic bags. Vitamin and mineral composition, as well as taste, will be preserved, however, the range of application of the fruit will be limited. After defrosting, the fruit pulp will become very soft and suitable for adding to smoothies, cocktails, and baking fillings.

It is better to defrost at room temperature than in a microwave. To prevent the flesh from oxidizing and not darkening at this time, sprinkle its surface with lemon, orange, grapefruit, pineapple juice. If you are afraid that the fruit juice will interrupt the taste of bananas, use another method: dilute the vinegar with water in a ratio of 1: 4 and soak the banana slices in the solution for 2-3 minutes. However, watch the time, otherwise the tender flesh will get wet and will be spoiled.

We hope that following our simple advice, you can easily save bananas at home long enough, and then enjoy the taste of sweet and healthy fruits with pleasure!

In the end, I suggest watching a video with a simple way to store bananas:

Fragrant fruit in a cheerful yellow "packaging". You carefully turn the skin on four sides, it looks beautiful, as in cartoons they draw, and inside there is sweet sugar cotton pulp. She melts in her mouth quickly, piece by piece and there is no banana, only the peel remains. So her hands itch at someone's feet to throw and look, and slip or not. And then, perhaps, they are deceiving us in the domestic and foreign cinema, showing scenes with "flights" on a banana peel. Just kidding, of course.

You won’t surprise with bananas now, all year round in markets and store shelves. The hostess will bring home with a margin so, for a week, well, so that not every day to go shopping. Looking - yellowish blackened, and did not have time to try. What is the matter, in fruit or in storage? How to store bananas correctly, let's figure it out, I guess, come in handy.

By the way, a banana is a berry, from the point of view of the science of botany, but in everyday life we \u200b\u200bare used to calling it fruit.

Is there any use in them, or maybe sweetness alone and fun?

There are a large number of substances needed in bananas, you can list endlessly. Vitamins A, C, E, and group B, and these, by the way, are helpers not only to health, but also to beauty. They have a lot of macro- and micronutrients, glucose, fiber, necessary for the intestines to work correctly.

The peel is suitable not only for a traumatic raffle, craftsmen found a lot of opportunities for its use. Here are some of them:

• It is possible to fertilize the soil of indoor plants with dried and ground peel.
• Wipe it with large leaves of flowers for shine.
• Whitening the inner surface of the banana peel will not damage the teeth.
• It helps to remove warts, you need only a few nights to peel the peel to them.

Choose: eat immediately or stocks for future use

There are no special tricks and tricks in choosing bananas. It is necessary to focus on the appearance. But before choosing, you need to decide when you are going to eat them.

If bananas get on the table today or tomorrow, it is best to choose fruits that are even yellow in color. Check is not only the color, but also the smoothness of the peel. If it is notched, it means that the bananas were collected too green, and there will be few useful substances in them.

A banana with a small amount of brown spots is also suitable for quick consumption. The more spots, the more ripe and sweeter it is, and the shorter its shelf life. It will be right to eat it, without delay, after the acquisition.

But you shouldn’t buy completely brown-gray bananas, unless, of course, this is such a variety, it is possible that they were “frozen” during delivery or improper storage.

To purchase for the future, you have to look for unripe bananas. The fruit should be greenish at the ends and more yellow in the central part. The presence of dark spots in this case is excluded. It is better to buy bananas for long-term storage with a whole bunch, make sure that its cut is dry and clean with no signs of mold.

The Russian market is replete with the quantity of this tropical product rather than the variety of varieties, so the advice can be considered universal. They are suitable for the popular Robusta Maurice variety and miniature finger bananas. But in the shops there are still varieties of "Barro" and "Manzano", and so they are eaten when they are completely blackened, this is a sign of the most intense and sweet taste.

Store at home correctly

Mature

So, smart ripe or slightly ripe fruits are bought - we eat today. A few pieces left, that's okay. To save the rest, do not put them in a plastic bag, wrap the tails (the place where they are held together in a bunch) in foil and put them in a closed cabinet or pantry. The shelf life in this form will be 2-3 days. So that they do not blacken even longer, you can put unripe pears or avocados next to them. The double benefit is that bananas are quite edible, and other fruits ripen faster.

The optimum temperature for storage is considered to be 12-14 degrees, in the apartment it is unlikely to drop to such marks. But on a closed loggia in the autumn-spring period completely. The temperature in the refrigerator on the top shelf will help maintain ripe bananas. Their taste there does not deteriorate for a long enough period: from 5 to 7 days, but at the same time they blacken and the appearance worsens.

Immature

For long-term storage (on average 10 days), buy green fruits so that they can ripen at home. Leave them on the table open in bamboo or wooden utensils, but so that the sun's rays do not fall, they will ripen in two or three days. To speed up the process, put ripe tomatoes and apples to them. Such a still life will revitalize the kitchen, and allow green bananas to ripen even faster.

If you need them much later, find a dark place for storage where the temperature is lower, do not pack, so as not to rot and blacken, and do not put other fruits in the neighborhood. Ideally, if the bunch turns out to be suspended.

If the bananas are still dark, and you don’t want to eat them in this form, you should not be upset, they are quite suitable for a variety of baking.

Your little house.

Bananas have long ceased to be exotic for us. In some supermarkets, bananas are cheaper than cucumbers and tomatoes. And although they are present in free sale all year round, it will not be superfluous for anyone to know how to store bananas at home correctly so that they do not darken and remain fresh and healthy.

What you need to know about storing bananas

Bananas can lie for a week at room temperature in a dry, dark place.

Only ripe bananas that have already begun to darken can be stored in the refrigerator.

You can freeze only peeled bananas without a peel.

Why bananas turn black

Everyone knows that bananas quickly blacken and lose their aesthetic appearance. This is due to the fact that they contain complex carbohydrates, which under the influence of oxygen break down into sucrose and other elements similar in composition to melanin. Because of this, darkening of the peel and pulp occurs, and also the taste changes somewhat. An interesting fact is that at low temperatures (below 10 degrees Celsius) these processes are significantly accelerated, and if the banana has already begun to darken in the cold, then after it is warm, the darkening process will occur even faster.

It is also interesting that in the cold only the peel of the banana will turn black, but the flesh will last longer light.

All this has an explanation at the molecular level, but we will not go so deep into this process, but rather we will consider in more detail the question of how to choose bananas and how to store them so that they do not turn black.

How to choose bananas

When choosing bananas, you should pay attention not only to the peel, but also to the color of the tip. If you are going to eat bananas immediately after the purchase or use them to prepare various dishes, then, of course, it is better to choose the most ripe ones that have begun to be covered with a black dot - they will be as sweet as possible. If you want to keep bananas at home for a while, you should choose fruits with green tails. Ripe bananas with yellow ponytails will not be stored for a long time, they cannot be stored even for a week.

How to banana banana at home

How to store bananas so they do not blacken

• it is better to store in clusters in limbo;
• do not store bananas in a plastic bag or polyethylene;
• it is not recommended to store them together with other fruits, as the ethylene released by them will greatly accelerate ripening, and then lead to spoilage;
• a suitable place to store bananas is a cool pantry or other dry and dark place with optimal temperature and humidity.

According to GOST, the optimal storage temperature will be + 12..15 ° C with a relative humidity of 50-70%.

If you bought a bunch of bananas and want to store them as long as possible, then each banana should be stored separately. The stalk (a place that comes off the bunch) of each banana needs to be wrapped in cling film or foil. Thus, you can manage to save the bananas purchased in late autumn until the New Year.

How to store green bananas so that they ripen

Usually, green bananas are bought in order to store them for as long as possible, or because the supermarket simply did not have others. To quickly mature, they should be stored with ripe apples or next to other fruits (melon or pear). Fold the fruits together in a paper bag and leave for 1-2 days until fully ripened. If the ripening period is not critical, then a bunch of bananas you just need to hang in the kitchen. In 3-5 days, depending on the degree of maturity, the bananas will become ripe and sweet.

For the longest possible storage of green bananas, it is necessary to provide them with the conditions described above, namely a dark cool place with a temperature range of + 12..15 ° C and a humidity of 50-70%.

How to store bananas in the refrigerator

Bananas in the refrigerator darken very quickly, but you can store them there! It is recommended to store in the refrigerator only ripe bananas that have started to turn black. The process of darkening the peel will continue, but the bananas themselves will deteriorate much more slowly, remaining strong and fresh for at least 1 week. It is best to put a paper bag with bananas on the middle shelf of the door, where the highest temperature is always maintained, up to + 12 ° C.

According to the famous Dole company, ripe bananas in the refrigerator will retain their rich taste and aroma, even if their peel turns black.

Peeled fruits can also be stored in the refrigerator. Sliced \u200b\u200bbanana without peel should be sprinkled with lemon (or other acidic - apple, pineapple) juice, put in a plastic container with a lid and send to the refrigerator. Thus, bananas can survive for about a day.

How to store bananas in the freezer

The longest way to keep bananas in the freezer. But keep in mind that even the hardest bananas after defrosting become very loose. In the future, such bananas can be used to prepare various desserts or drinks. Therefore, before sending the bananas for storage in the freezer, they should be whipped with a blender in mashed potatoes or peeled, cut and stored in plastic bags with a zip fastener. You can also freeze the bananas in a plastic container whole, previously sprinkled with lemon juice so that they do not darken.

Bananas are very whimsical to low temperatures. Storage conditions according to GOST must be observed in the most careful way, otherwise they may lose their ripening ability and begin to deteriorate.

Proper storage of bananas in a warehouse also implies the processing of fruits in aeration chambers. It is there that the bananas turn yellow and then go to retail outlets. Many are interested in how bananas are processed in a warehouse and whether it is harmful. Ethylene gas is used to accelerate ripening. It is completely safe and does not penetrate the fetus, but still, before cleaning, it is better to rinse the banana with running water.

Note to implementers

In the warehouses of small retail outlets, optimal storage conditions should also be maintained - temperature + 12 ... 15 ° C and relative humidity 60-70%.

Shelf life of bananas in the store is no more than 15 days.

You can hang bunches of bananas in the back room or pantry. So bananas will be preserved best. If there is no possibility to hang out, then you can store them directly in the boxes, but be sure to first unfold the film in which they are wound.