Bananas are a popular potassium-packed fruit, but while many love them, they can be a bit of a nuisance.
There is nothing worse than buying a fresh bunch of bananas only to find within a few days they have bruised or ripened too quickly or have not ripened quickly enough.
Just like avocados, bananas are on their own timeline, but there are a few ways to store bananas to have some control over their ripening process.
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Gary Ellis, Director at CE Safety, told Express.co.uk the best way to keep bananas perfectly ripe and yellow.
Gary said: “Where you should store your bananas to stop them going prematurely brown has always been a hot topic of conversation.
“Bananas emitting ethylene gas is what turns them brown, so in theory, to keep them ripe, you should prevent the gas from travelling down and around the fruit.
“One key rule with bananas is to keep them away from other produce.
“If bananas are kept near fruits that release a lot of ethylene gas as they ripen, this will increase the speed at which they ripen and go brown.
“Fruits such as peaches, tomatoes, avocados, figs and apples should be kept well clear of your bananas if you don’t want them to ripen too quickly.
“Keeping your bananas hanging can help to keep them fresh, as any bruising or exposure of the banana flesh itself to oxygen is only going to make ripening faster.
“Hanging the bananas allows air to move around the bananas more freely and encourages the ethylene gas to move away from the fruit.
“However, fruit bowls with banana hangers over the top of them may look pretty, but these are just going to make your bananas ripen faster as they are near other fruits.”
If you don’t want to purchase a specific banana hanger, you can add a small under-cabinet hook to your kitchen.
“If you can separate bananas up, this will also help as the ethylene gas can spread from one to another,” he added.
Gary also discussed the food storage hack where you wrap clingfilm around the top - or the stalk - of the banana.
This can be done as a bunch or individually.
He explained: “You can also use cling film on the end of your bananas once separate to slow down the ripening process.
“Wrap a small amount of cling film around the end where they are often joined together.
“This will keep them fresher for longer as it traps the ethylene gas at the top of the fruit where it emits from rather than letting it spread and exposing the other bananas to the gas.”
This hack has been criticised as not being environmentally friendly, however.
As for whether bananas can go in the fridge, Gary revealed: “It is possible to refrigerate bananas. However, a top tip to remember is to refrigerate them as soon as they’re at your perfect ripeness.
“If you put them in too soon, they’ll stay very green. Too late, and they will turn brown and mushy.”
Gary also suggested how homeowners can reduce their food waste if bananas ripen too quickly.
He said: “Worst case scenario, and your bananas do go brown a little sooner than expected, make banana bread!”
A banana bought green, turning yellow, and then brown can take between a week and two weeks, depending on what methods of storing bananas have been used.
So if a banana starts to ripen around day five, it will be perfectly ripe around day seven before being placed in the fridge for a few days.
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