A produce storage specialist has shared several simple ways to keep bananas fresh for longer, including changes people can make when buying and storing the fruit. The tips require no complicated equipment and can help UK households cut food waste.
Expert's key recommendations
Amy Cross, who helps households store fresh produce for longer and cut grocery bills, claims bananas can be kept fresh for up to three weeks with the right approach. She is the bestselling author of the Zero Waste Produce Guide and runs a YouTube channel called The Cross Legacy.
In a video titled 'Keep Bananas Fresh for 3 Weeks with This One Simple Trick!', which has more than 500,000 views, she said: "If you feel like you're throwing bananas away all of the time, let me teach you a couple tricks to have fresh bananas."
Organic bananas and stem seal
One of her first recommendations is to consider buying organic bananas, which she claims can stay fresh for longer because they ripen more slowly. Ms Cross explained that conventionally grown bananas can be treated with ethylene during their journey to shops to accelerate ripening.
She said: "Organic bananas are not sprayed. They only create natural ethylene that comes out of the bananas naturally to ripen."
Another simple step is to keep the plant-based seal around the top of the bananas in place for as long as possible. She explained: "Also, keeping this plant-based seal on the top will also prevent some of the ethylene gas from spreading as much. So I try to keep that seal on as long as possible."
Saving overripe and half-eaten bananas
Bananas that are already becoming too ripe can still be saved rather than thrown away. Ms Cross cuts hers into long slices before flash-freezing them on parchment paper and later transferring them into a bag.
Even a partially eaten banana does not necessarily need to end up in the bin. Ms Cross also has a method for keeping half a banana fresh if someone does not want to eat the whole fruit at once.
She explained: "I will open it halfway and try to keep the peel on the other half, and just cut it in half, and then I can store it in a glass jar with a metal lid, and then I can eat it in the next day or two, and it's still totally fresh."
Storage location matters
Where bananas are stored in the kitchen is also important, particularly given their potential to affect other produce. Ms Cross said: "Bananas naturally release ethylene gas, which will make other produce items ripen quicker, which is a great thing if you're trying to ripen a rock-hard avocado. If you store it near a banana, it will ripen sooner than if it was just on the counter."
For that reason, she keeps her bananas some distance from the rest of her fresh produce.
