How to Keep Bananas Fresh For Longer After Cutting? 10 Ways

How to Keep Bananas Fresh For Longer After Cutting? Here Are The 10 Best Ways To Keeping Banana Fresh:- Banana is a grassy plant (not a palm tree, as many think) up to 9 meters high. Ripe fruits are yellow, elongated, and cylindrical, resembling a crescent.

Covered with dense skin, slightly oily texture. The flesh has a delicate milky color. Banana is not only tasty but also a healthy delicacy that can be used in various dishes and desserts for children and adults. Its pulp contains numerous useful trace elements and minerals that have a beneficial effect on the body.

A group of vitamins B (B1, B2, B6), vitamin C and PP are responsible for the nutrition of the body so that a person is energetic and efficient. Beta-carotene, calcium, potassium, iron, fluorine, phosphorus affect the work of the whole organism.

They reduce the level of bad cholesterol, normalize the work of the gastrointestinal tract and cardiac system. Bananas are a great helper in the fight against stress, seasonal depression, and bad mood. Biogenic amines – serotonin, tyramine, and dopamine – affect the central nervous system. They help calm down after a stressful day or a nervous breakdown.

However, bananas are slowly digested, so overweight people shouldn’t abuse them. It is also not recommended to eat them before an immediate lunch or dinner. A feeling of heaviness and bloating may appear. Immediately after a fruit snack, you should not drink water, juice, or eat a banana on an empty stomach. The best option is to eat a banana an hour after eating – like brunch or afternoon tea.

Bananas should not be carried away by people who have problems with blood clots or vessels. Because they thicken the blood and increase its viscosity. This can cause vein and arterial thrombosis. On this basis, in men, bananas can provoke problems with potency, so they slow down the blood flow in the cavernous body of the penis.

How to choose the right banana?

It all starts with the choice of your bananas. Because when you are in the fruit and vegetable section of your supermarket, at the market, or your local market, if you choose bananas that are already very ripe or damaged, you will have trouble keeping them for a long time. Here’s how to choose bananas:

Choose bananas with a light yellow peel and still green ends: This means that they are not yet very ripe and that you will, therefore, have a few days to eat them before they start to ripen and become blackberries.
Make sure the bananas have no brown spots, as this is a sign that the banana is too ripe
Check that the bananas you choose do not have holes because they expose the banana to the air which will make it ripen faster.

Mistakes that you should not do if want to keep bananas for a long time

Even if you know how to choose the best bananas, wait until they are perfectly ripe, apply a strip of cellophane on their stems, and place them in the fridge as soon as they are ripe. It will be unfortunately not enough if you make the following mistakes.

leave the bananas in the sun or put them near a radiator or fireplace, because if the bananas are exposed to heat, it will ripen them faster
keep bananas with other fruits and vegetables as this will make them ripen faster. Fruits, vegetables, and plants produce a hormone called ethylene. Because already ripe fruits and vegetables produce even more ethylene, they ripen nearby fruits and vegetables even faster. Keep bananas alongside other fruits and vegetables already well mature therefore likely to mature them very, very quickly.
leave the bananas in a plastic bag because they will ripen faster and may even rot if you forget them. Again, it is because of the ethylene that will stay locked in the bag instead of escaping into the air. At a minimum, open the plastic bag as soon as you come home from shopping and take the bananas out of the bag a few hours later.
put the bananas in the fridge when they are not ripe because it will darken the skin of the bananas faster and it will prevent them from ripening which will make them inedible and hard.

How to store bananas at home?

The thing is that bananas are picked almost green because they ripen very quickly. In supermarkets, they are stored at a certain temperature and treated with special gas for even maturation. In simple domestic conditions, it is simply impossible to repeat all of these secrets. It is therefore worth remembering a few simple rules, and you can keep bananas fresh a little longer:

Bananas do not have to be kept in the refrigerator, as they will turn black almost immediately.
Free fruit from plastic bags to prevent rotting.
If bananas are not used immediately, it is better to buy some unripe fruit.
Fruits with different black spots on the skin should be avoided, which indicates the last degree of ripeness.
The most optimal temperature regime in which bananas can keep their freshness is 13-14 degrees and a humidity of not more than 90%. For longer storage, you can store the fruits in a dark and cool place, e.g. in a basement. To avoid rapid ripening, do not place bananas in direct sunlight.
To limit oxygen absorption, wrap the banana tail with cling film. This trick extends their freshness for a few days.
Do not store bananas with other fruits, berries, or vegetables. All of them emit ethylene, which triggers the decay process. Darkened fruits produce more gas than fresh ones.
The hermetically sealed container protects the peeled bananas, even though it is partially, from contact with air.
The selection of quality fruits is not enough. To maintain their integrity, a few rules must be observed during transport. Do not drop bananas or place heavy objects on them.

Why is it necessary to properly store banana either whole or sliced?

You have noticed that when you bought the fruits like a banana in a larger quantity, no matter how many safety measures you take. They quickly turn brown, ripe, and become soft and mushy such that ultimately you have to throw them out. The reason behind the discoloration of the fruit is pretty simple and scientific too. When the fruits or vegetables are peeled or cut, the enzymes in their cells are released.

In the presence of oxygen (that is when exposed to air), the enzyme phenolase catalyzes a step in the biochemical conversion of plant phenolic compounds to form brown pigments known as melanins. This reaction, known as enzymatic browning, occurs easily at warm temperatures when the pH is between 5.0 and 7.0.

Ethylene promotes ripening and abscission of fruits. This has been known since the beginning of the last century. Since 1934, it was known that the plants themselves can produce ethylene. Many climacteric fruits such as apples, bananas, and tomatoes experience a sharp increase in their ethylene levels during the end of the green phase. As a consequence of the high amount of ethylene, chlorophyll breaks down and other pigments begin to be produced, creating the typical color of the peel of ripe fruit. The activity of many enzymes related to maturation is accelerated.

Starch, organic acids, and, in some cases, as in the lipids of avocado, mobilize and turn into sugars. Pectins, the main component of the middle lamina, degrade. The fruit softens. A high respiration rate accompanies these metabolic activities, and together they increase oxygen consumption. Ethylene levels are especially high in tissues where the peel is released from the fruit flesh by abscission.

How to Keep Bananas Fresh For Longer After Cutting? Here Are The 10 Best Ways Keeping sliced bananas fresh for a longer time

Bananas are often the fruit that we include in our everyday diet. We tend to buy the extra bananas and cut them into slices and use them as breakfast or fruit salad. But what if we cut too many slices of bananas and we don’t need them all. So is it possible to keep sliced or cut bananas fresh for a longer period of time? There certainly is such as:

1. Use of lemon juice or vinegar

To prevent banana slices from turning brown, the trick of using acid can be utilized like for apples.

Just mix the slices in a little lemon juice to inhibit enzyme browning. Covering them well, especially on cut faces, will help prevent them from turning brown. In addition to lemon juice, vinegar would also work. Like sulfuric acid, in fact, but you probably don’t want to eat them afterward.
Acid disrupts the enzymatic breakdown process and prevents your precious banana slices from turning into soft brown hockey pucks.
A little acid will do, so don’t use more than about a teaspoon. Or you’re going to have sour bananas.

2. Use of other fruit juices

There are various other fruit juices besides lemon juice that can prevent banana slices from rusting. You can take the freshly squeezed juice at home or packaged juice, it doesn’t matter. You probably need half a cup of juice for 2 bananas. The juices that can be used are:

lime juice
Orange juice
canned pineapple juice
fresh or canned grapefruit juice
Apple juice

Method of storing sliced bananas using the fruit juices

Take the slices of bananas in a bowl or tray and then pour the juice over the slices or soak the slices in the juice. Leave them submerged for a while so that the slices of bananas can absorb the juice. This way they look fresh for a longer period of time. However, the taste can be a bit sour.
The other way is to put the slices of bananas in an airtight plastic bag and pour the juice in the plastic bag and gently stir them a few times.
If you don’t want to alter the taste of your bananas, use a minimum amount of juice or spray the juice over the slices using the spray bottle.
It is better that you use the slices as soon as possible if you want to use them on the same day better to not keep them in the fridge.
If you want to eat the slices or use them later, you can refrigerate them by putting them in a container with a lid as tight as possible.
In case if the slices of the bananas are already rusty, then you can reuse the slices instead of throwing them by using the canned pineapple juice or grapefruit juice. Rinse the banana slices in one of the two juices mentioned by keeping the slices in the juice for 10-15 minutes. This way they will look much fresher and taste delicious.

3. Use of soda

Soda water or sparkling water can be used instead of fruit juices to keep the slices of bananas fresh for a longer time. The benefit of using soda water is that it doesn’t alter the taste of the banana slices as the fruit juices do. Just like in fruit juices, you can soak the slices of bananas in the soda water for a few minutes and store them.

4. Use of tap water

tap water can also be used instead of fruit juices and soda water but it isn’t effective as of as soda water and juices. The method is the same, soaking the slices of banana in the tap water for a few minutes.

5. Diluted citric acid

Citric acid is the same component that is found in citric fruit such as lemon and lime. To use the citric acid you can:

Take 3 teaspoons of citric acid and 1 cup of water and mix them or stir them properly. Then soak the slices of the bananas in the mixture.

6. Dissolved Vitamin C

You can take the powdered form of Vitamin C and then dissolve them in water. And then soak the slices of bananas in the solution. You can also use the tablet of Vitamin C, crush them and form into a powder.

7. Less exposure to air

One of the reasons for the quick spoilage of the bananas whether whole or sliced or peeled is their exposure to the air which caused their quick ripening and discoloration. Turning the pulp into soft and mushy. Therefore you can follow the tips given below so that you can limit the exposure of the fruit to the air:

A simple tip is to use wax paper. Cut the slices of the bananas so that they are almost the same size, then spread them out evenly on a tray. Cut a square of waxed paper that goes into the tray, then place it on top of the slices and gently press them so that each one sticks to the paper. The banana slices will be between the paper and the tray without being exposed to air.
If you have time, you can also cut small squares of wax paper or plastic wrap and place them individually on each slice. Be sure to remove them before consuming them.
If you have a vacuum storage device, you can also store the slices in an airtight container.

8. Freezing bananas

Freezing bananas is not only a way to avoid having to throw away pieces of this fruit or eat them by obligation because they are maturing a lot, but frozen bananas are also an ideal preparation. And in some essential cases, for certain culinary preparations, for example, to make fruit smoothies, ice cream, chocolates, etc.

To give you a couple of examples of recipes in which we use frozen bananas, we can remember the frozen Banana with chocolate that children love and the Smoothie of banana, cocoa, and cashew nuts. There are ice creams that are made with bananas and some other ingredients, such as chocolate, cream, other fruits … in addition to being simple, quick to make, and natural, they are very creamy and rich.

The banana can be frozen whole and with its skin, which is very comfortable a priori, you just have to wash and dry the whole bananas. And put them in the freezer, their skin protects the pulp, but if you want it can be put in a bag of freezing.

Freezing whole bananas can cause problems when using them depending on what you want to do, for example, to make ice cream or very cold smoothies they do not work, since to remove the skin it is necessary to let them thaw. In this way the use of the banana would be another, to make biscuits or cakes, to make creams or custard, etc.

The method for freezing bananas that seems most practical to us is peeled and cut into pieces, the size will depend on the uses.

It is very easy to prepare the bananas in this way, they are peeled, cut into slices, and freeze them. First, you have to spread them on a tray making sure that each slice of bananas doesn’t touch each other.
Put them in the freezer, just as you do with other foods, such as red berries, the zucchini. When they are already frozen, they can be put in a freezer bag and will take up less space, while the pieces of banana will be kept separate so that we can pick up the ones we need when we are going to use them in the kitchen.
Another way to freeze the bananas is to make a puree, in which case you just have to crush them and add a little lemon juice to help preserve them. Put it in a Tupper or a zippered bag for freezing and voila.

Tips to freeze the bananas

Freezing helps to maximize the storage time of bananas. At the same time, the fruits do not lose their taste, vitamins, and minerals. After thawing, however, the pulp becomes too soft and can only be used for desserts or cocktails. This is the only disadvantage of this method.

Place the fruit in a plastic container with a lid before freezing. This limits the airflow to the fruit and contributes to long-term preservation.
You can freeze both peeled and unpeeled fruit. Bananas are stored for 2-3 months at a temperature of –18 ° C and below. The process inevitably turns the skin black, but the fruit remains edible.
Bananas are thawed at room temperature. The pulp can darken.

In all cases, it is recommended to choose ripe bananas, as this way they are tastier. It must be said that after freezing if they are defrosted they do not maintain the same texture.

You have to dip a paper napkin in water and wrap the fruit in it before putting it in the box and closing it. This way, it will only be necessary to remove the moistened paper and the pieces will be as fresh as freshly cut. This is so because the paper when wet makes a protective barrier, thus preventing the little air that could have been left in the box from drying out what we have put inside and oxidizing it (even minimally).

10. Dried bananas

What is the best way to keep bananas at home? Of course, in dried form. After all, dried bananas are very useful and can stand for more than one month. Ripe, yellow bananas should be peeled and cut into thin disks. Their thickness should not exceed 4-5 mm. In a special bowl, mix the juice of 1 lemon with water. It should be about twice as much as juice. In the resulting mixture, we throw banana discs for about 20 seconds.

Because of this procedure, the banana will not blacken and retain its beautiful appearance. Next, dry all slices in an appropriate fruit dryer. It will take about 17-19 hours. Then place all dried bananas in a special container or sealed container. Keep them in a cool, dry place. In the refrigerator, dried bananas can stand for about 8-10 months.

The other method of drying the slices of bananas is by the use of an oven. Only mature fruits are suitable for drying without damage and with no signs of wilting. Dry, peeled and sliced bananas can be dried in the oven by placing them on a baking sheet. The process will take 3-5 hours.

The finished product will have a rich brown color and decrease in size, but this will not affect the taste, and the concentration of useful elements will only increase. Just do not forget that calorie content during drying increases almost fourfold.

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How to Keep Bananas Fresh For Longer After Cutting? Here Are The 10 Best Ways To Keeping Banana Fresh