PSA: Don’t Store Your Bananas In The Fridge

When it comes to storing fresh fruit and vegetables there are a lot of dos and don’ts. In particular, if you’re sick of your bananas going black before you can eat them, it might have something to do with your storage technique.

Let’s educate ourselves.

Don’t store your bananas in the fridge

Bananas can be used at any time of their life cycle whether they be green, yellow or brown. But if you’re trying to prolong that ripe yellow period there are a few things you can do.

For starters, don’t store them in the fridge.

I know. I’m guilty of this too. But storing your bananas in the fridge interrupts the ripening process and is a fast lane to their skin turning black. This is because bananas typically grow in warm and tropical climates, and aren’t accustomed to the cold corner of your refrigerator.

As the folks at Travel and Leisure explain, storing bananas in the fridge stalls the ripening process. Even if you return the fruit to room temperature after being in the fridge there’s no guarantee it will continue to ripen properly.

If you must store your bananas in the fridge, it’s recommended you do it when the banana’s skin starts to speckle with brown, which indicates its starchiness has ripened.

Then, even if the skin turns black in your fridge, the inside fruit should still be good to eat.

Where should you keep them?

So where should you be storing your bananas?

“Always store your bananas at room temperature and out of direct sunlight,” cafe and health food store owner Yoki Inoue told the ABC.

If you’re hoping to ripen your bananas quickly, you can store them in a paper bag which will trap the ethane gas and help speed up the process. If you have an avocado you need to be ripened, chuck that in there with them.

Once you’ve eaten that delicious banana at perfect ripeness there comes the question of what to do with the peel.

Did you know banana skins are actually edible and are perfectly usable in a smoothie or for baking? You can also turn them into bacon.