Bananas Will Stay Fresh For Longer If Covered In This Kitchen Staple

Unfortunately, this is how my week goes: I buy my groceries on Sunday, enjoy them until Wednesday, and then realise that I’ve bought way too many fresh fruits and veggies that have now turned brown in the bowl. 

The worst culprit is bananas. And while I love using the older ones for banana bread, sometimes I wish I could keep them firm and yellow for longer than two poxy days. 

But it turns out I could have been enjoying their creamy, unblemished centres for longer – if only I’d wrapped the stalks in tinfoil.

Why does wrapping banana stalks in tinfoil keep them fresher?

It’s down to a gas called ethylene. This is responsible for the enzymatic browning (basically, “going off”) of bananas.

It’s the same substance that causes fruit to ripen, which is why placing unripe fruit in the same bag as a banana can encourage them to mature. 

Bananas have a lot of ethylene, and one ripe banana can affect the others in the bunch.

Trapping the gas with tinfoil may help to stall the ripening process, which leaves bananas brown and mushy over time.

The American Statistical Association checked to see whether cling film or tin foil did a better job – and tinfoil won.

We should refrigerate our bananas, too

If you’re out of tinfoil, according to fruit company Dole, simply chucking your bananas in the fridge can stall the ripening process.

They say that the anti-browning effects are so strong, you should only place your bananas in the fridge when they’re at a perfect ripeness. 

Martha Stewart’s site suggests that “bananas can be stored on a kitchen counter until they are ripe, and then they can be stored in the refrigerator for at least two days more or until the skin becomes black”.

This is because while refrigerating bananas will keep their flesh from ripening, it may also blacken their skin prematurely.