Bought a big bunch of bananas, and before you can finish them, they turn black and rot—what a waste. A laboratory earlier personally tested 4 major banana anti-blackening storage methods, putting bananas in the fridge. After a 3-week experiment, the champion turned out to be the method with the lowest cost and the simplest steps.
According to a report by the Japanese media outlet grape, bananas are convenient, delicious, and rich in nutrients, making them the top choice for a healthy snack. However, the most troublesome drawback of bananas is that they turn black and rot not long after being brought home. Many people have tried various folk remedies for this, hoping to extend the freshness period. The Japanese YouTube channel "Cooking Class no Bon-chan" points out that it earlier conducted an experiment personally testing the 4 most mainstream banana refrigeration storage methods, competing to see which method most effectively prevents bananas from turning black. Surprisingly, the results found that the method with the simplest steps and lowest cost actually completely beat other complicated techniques in freshness-preserving effect.
The tester divided bananas into the following 4 groups for processing, and uniformly placed them in the vegetable crisper of the fridge for storage to observe changes:
Use plastic wrap to tightly wrap only the stem of the banana, then put it into an airtight bag and seal it for storage. The stem releases ethylene gas that promotes ripening; wrapping the stem can block the gas from spreading, and the airtight bag can prevent the banana from drying out. This method uses less plastic wrap.
Wrap each whole banana completely in plastic wrap, then put it into an airtight bag for storage. Wrapping the whole banana completely can minimize direct contact between the banana and air to the greatest extent, but handling it is relatively time-consuming and complicated.
No plastic wrap is needed at all. Simply separate the whole bunch of bananas into individual bananas, then put each one separately into an ordinary plastic bag.
Wrap each banana completely in newspaper, then put it into an airtight bag for storage. Use newspaper to absorb excess moisture and reduce the effect of humidity on the bananas.
After 3 weeks of refrigeration in the vegetable crisper, the tester took out these 4 groups of bananas for comparison of appearance and flesh. The one with the best preservation state turned out to be the most effortless and simplest of the 4 methods—the single-banana ordinary plastic bag method. The tester points out that the difference can be clearly felt by touching with the hand. Some bananas in the other groups had already turned black on the skin, and the flesh began to spoil after cutting open. Therefore, this comparison was not only about the banana skin color, but also observed the state of the internal flesh.
Generally speaking, the storage period for bananas in the fridge is about 1 to 2 weeks. Although this experiment found that using plastic bags for individual packaging may have the chance to extend storage time, it does not mean all bananas can definitely be safely stored for 3 weeks. How long bananas can actually last depends on environmental factors such as the banana's ripeness and the fridge temperature. Especially when large areas of obvious blackening have appeared on the banana skin, before eating you must carefully cut it open to confirm whether the flesh is abnormal or spoiled. Never judge solely by the number of storage days.
Source: grape, "Cooking Class no Bon-chan"
