How to Preserve Bananas

Bananas are available year round, easy to carry, sweet and soft, so eating bananas is a convenient way to add important nutrients to your diet. Bananas are rich in vitamins, zinc, soluble fiber and protease inhibitors, which help clear bacteria in the stomach. Research shows that eating bananas regularly helps maintain heart function, blood pressure, bone density, vision, digestive system and kidney health. You should buy fresh bananas and preserve them to eat gradually.

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Preservation to make ripe bananas

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Choose bananas based on ripeness. Depending on when to eat and how to store bananas, you will need to buy more or less ripe bananas. If you’re buying to eat alone, you’ll need the bananas to be green so they don’t ripen all at once. If you buy bananas for the whole family or a few other people and know they will eat them quickly, ripe bananas are the most suitable. Here are a few notes that you should keep in mind when choosing bananas:

Green bananas are unripe bananas. You should buy green bananas to preserve them for a long time without freezing. Choose firm bananas that do not have black spots or bruises on the peel.
Ripe bananas are bananas that have changed color. Most bananas are yellow when ripe, but some are brown or red. If you can clearly see the color of ripe bananas on the peel, the banana is ripe.
Bananas with brown spots are the sweetest. When small brown spots appear on the peel, the banana inside is very ripe. When the peel has lots of brown or black spots instead of yellow, the banana is overripe.
Do not choose bananas that are gray or pale. This is a sign that the banana has been refrigerated and not ripened properly.

Remove the banana from the plastic bag as soon as you bring it home. Do not store bananas in a plastic bag as the high humidity in the bag will cause the bananas to spoil.

There is another theory about bananas staying fresh longer in plastic bags. You will take out one banana and leave the rest in the bag for testing. If bananas are left outside to ripen faster, it will prove that plastic bags are able to keep bananas fresh longer. However, this will depend on the humidity and heat in the room where you store the bananas.

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Store raw bananas at room temperature. Refrigerating or freezing unripe bananas will prevent them from ripening properly, even after they have been left at room temperature.

Put green bananas in a brown paper bag to ripen them faster. Add an apple or tomato to the bag so that the bag ripens in just 1 day.
Another way to help bananas ripen faster is to keep them near ripe fruits such as other ripe bananas.

Leave the ripe green bananas in the air at room temperature for a few days. Please be patient. Although it is true that the warmer the room temperature, the faster the banana will ripen, but you should avoid leaving bananas in direct sunlight.

Hang the banana on the banana crochet tool. If you like to eat bananas then it’s best to buy a banana crochet tool. You can buy a table banana hook and place it on the kitchen counter or use a banana hanger overhead. Table banana hooks and hangers help air circulate around bananas and prevent bananas from “browning” in the position of contact with the surface.

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Store ripe bananas at room temperature if you’re going to eat them all in a few days. You should eat or put bananas in the refrigerator when you see black spots on the skin and before the bananas are overripe.

Keep sliced bananas fresh. If you’ve cut a banana into slices, whether you’re going to keep it in the fridge or use it as a fruit salad, drizzle with some lemon juice, pineapple juice, or vinegar to keep it fresh. ^{[1] X Research Source}

Preserving ripe bananas

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Remove the bananas from the bunch. If the bananas are ripe, you can keep them fresh and golden for a long time by removing each banana from the bunch. This way, bananas will stay fresh longer.

Store ripe bananas with green fruit. Take a green pear or avocado and place it near the banana to slow down the ripening process of the banana and help the green fruit ripen faster. So one arrow hits two targets!

Wrap the stem in cling film. This will prevent the ethylene gas, which is normally formed naturally while the banana is ripening, from getting closer to other parts of the banana and making the banana ripen faster. You can wrap some duct tape around the food wrap for a tighter hold. Every time you take a banana out of the bunch, don’t forget to wrap the stem. Or, you can separate the bananas from the bunch and wrap the stem of each fruit separately. This will take a bit of work, but it’s very effective! ^{[2] X Research Sources}^{[3] X Research Sources}

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Put the bananas in the fruit and vegetable storage compartment in the refrigerator after they are ripe. Refrigeration will slow the ripening of bananas, but not completely. The banana peel will continue to turn brown, but the banana will stay fresh and hard for about 1 to 2 weeks. According to the company Dpe Bananas, storing ripe bananas in the refrigerator will keep the delicious flavor of bananas for a long time even if the skin turns black. ^{[4] X Research Sources}

Peel bananas before freezing. Fill bananas with ziplock plastic bags or plastic containers and store them in the freezer. Note: freezing bananas with the skin on will be difficult to peel after the bananas have frozen solid. Besides, when the banana is defrosted, the skin will be soft. You can use peeled frozen bananas to make smoothies.

Store bananas in the freezer for many months. After thawing bananas, you can use them to bake or cook, use in sauces and smoothies. Alternatively, you can also drizzle some lemon juice to keep the bananas from turning brown. ^{[5] X Research Sources}

Peel bananas and cut into small cubes or mash before freezing.
Divide bananas into portions just enough to make food according to the recipe.
Place the divided bananas in a zippered freezer bag or plastic container and store in the freezer.

Warning

Bananas left at room temperature can attract fruit flies. Therefore, you can store bananas in sealed paper bags or the refrigerator if you have a problem with fruit flies.

Steps

Preservation to make ripe bananas

Preserving ripe bananas

Warning

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