Placing food in the refrigerator preserves it. Fresh produce is protected from outside air and bacteria; leftovers are isolated from midges; and fruits and vegetables are kept cool to prevent them from spoiling. However, some foods do not go in the refrigerator.
Bananas do not keep in the refrigerator
While the refrigerator extends the shelf life of foods, some don’t belong there, starting with bananas. When stored in a cool place, bananas cannot continue their normal ripening process. The reason? Among the banana’s superpowers, bananas are climacteric fruits. This means that they continue to ripen even after being picked, thanks to ethylene, a gas naturally released by bananas! Below 12°C, this fruit can no longer ripen, and when in contact with the cold, its skin could turn black, and its flavors “freeze”, since you will feel them less on the palate. Eating a banana straight out of the refrigerator will therefore be no better than if it had spent several hours in the fruit basket, where it is better to leave it. In the open air, the flesh of the banana is protected by its skin, and above all, it can ripen without any problem and develop its flavors without any particular temperature interfering.
To store an overripe banana, the refrigerator may be the solution.
However, if your bananas are too ripe, you were planning to eat them, but don’t know when yet, put them in the refrigerator so as not to throw them away. The cold will put the ripening process that has already started very (or even too much) on hold, which will give you some breathing room, since you won’t have to rush to eat those last few bananas! Otherwise, the best advice when the bananas are too ripe and to avoid wasting them, cook them in a smoothie or banana bread. The riper the banana, the more its flavors are enhanced.
