The same thing happens to the banana as to the avocado: it is difficult to determine the perfect moment to eat it. However, the delicious yellow fruit is easier to understand when it is ripening fast.
If you’ve ever had a bunch of bananas turning dark brown or even black too quickly, then you’ve likely had to use them quickly or freeze them so as not to waste them.
The life cycle of a banana is colorful: it starts with a deep green, changes to a delicious yellow and ends (if not eaten first) with an unappetizing brown. There is a reason that banana turns that color in no time, and there is also a trick to avoid it.
The temperature favors it to turn black
The real reason bananas ripen is due to temperature and a chemical reaction. Therefore, controlling the conditions in which bananas are stored can help keep them their delicious yellow color for a longer period of time. However, this does not alter too much in the benefits it brings to health.
The first reason that bananas ripen faster is if the temperature at which they are stored is too high . Any temperature above 13ºC will cause the bananas to ripen more quickly and, at the same time, they will change to a darker color. That is why the banana can overripe in a matter of days. So keeping bananas fresh in the fridge will help them stay perfectly ripe for longer without darkening.
The second reason why bananas turn black is due to polyphenol oxidase, an enzyme that causes fruit to ripen when it reacts with oxygen . This surrounds the entire banana (or bunch of bananas) and causes them to turn dark brown or black. High amounts of ethylene cause the yellow pigments in bananas to break down into those characteristic brown spots in a process called enzymatic browning .
In fact, if a green banana that is placed in a brown paper bag it will ripen faster due to all the ethylene trapped inside. But if the fruit is subjected to its own gaseous prison for too long, it will ripen to rot.
The trick to make a banana last longer
Although the chemical reaction cannot be completely stopped, and therefore neither can the process of bananas turning black, we can take steps to slow it down. There are several ways to slow down the reaction of both whole and peeled bananas. While storing bananas in an airtight container like a vacuum-sealed bag will help, there are other easy solutions as well.
The most practical method is, once the fruit ripens according to its natural rhythm, we will simply place the whole bananas in the refrigerator where the temperature is well below 13ºC. The peel may turn brown or black, but it is just a change in the pigment of the peel. The actual fruit inside the peel will keep a good flavor and a good texture.
Another method to slow the reaction of oxygen with peeled bananas is to coat them with an acid wash. One acid that works well is lemon or lime juice, and another is vinegar . We can put slices in the acidic liquid that we remain or spread them on whole bananas. When consuming them, we can use water to dilute the citrus or vinegar. However, it may affect the taste of the fruit.
