Food storage advice is crucial for maintaining fruits, vegetables, and other perishables such as bananas in optimal condition. Bananas can transform from perfect to overripe rapidly, becoming soft and brown almost overnight.
If your bananas are deteriorating before lasting even a fortnight, the likelihood is you’re not storing them properly. However, don’t despair as a food storage expert has unveiled a fantastic method that can prevent your bananas from browning and even blackening in certain instances for as long as 26 days. Whilst most banana preservation techniques recommend wrapping the stem in cling film, tin foil, or moist kitchen roll, this particular approach is entirely different.
Amy Cross, who goes by @amycrosslegacy on TikTok, is known for her guidance on buying, cleaning, and storing everyday fruits and vegetables. Earlier this year she disclosed her distinctive jar technique to prolong banana freshness.
In her method, Amy slices bananas into portions, keeping the skin on, and places them in a glass mason jar which she then refrigerates.
Following 26 days, she demonstrated the results – the banana pieces remained fresh in appearance and the peel stayed yellow without any discolouration.
Throughout the video, Amy revealed: “These are the bananas I purchased on March 13 and I cut this into thirds and put it into a jar, so they’re 26 days old.”
She went on to clarify her experiment’s objective: “So the whole goal of putting the bananas in the jar was to see if I can get a cut banana to last 12 hours and it’s been 26 days.”
For those who’d rather not slice their bananas, it’s recommended to store them in a cool, light-protected area.
Bananas should ideally be kept at around 12 degrees, as they’ll ripen quicker if they’re too warm. A dimly lit room without direct sunlight is ideal. Therefore, a warm kitchen isn’t the best place for your bananas.
For those looking to store peeled bananas, the juice trick is worth giving a go. Once a banana has been sliced and exposed to air, it will quickly turn brown.
Just sprinkle some lemon juice or pineapple juice on them – this works wonders, particularly in fruit salads.
