How to keep bananas fresh for longer without browning

Bananas are delicious and a versatile ingredient, but they are notorious for going brown too quickly – and the reason may be that you are storing them the wrong way.

If your bananas are browning or turning black, then you may be storing them in a fruit bowl or with their stems out in the open.

These are two of the worst ways to keep bananas if you want them to stay fresh and yellow.

Taking to their TikTok account @dyannemartin50, Dyanne shared an “insane” way to prolong the lifespan of bananas so they “will last a lot longer”.

She captioned the video: “Wash your bananas! Rinse the chemicals off, wrap the stem in a wet paper towel and re-wet that paper towel every morning. Your bananas will last longer.”

Dyanne started the video by explaining that bananas are treated with chemicals so they need to be washed in cold water once taken home from the supermarket.

She noted that some bananas she used the wet paper towel hack on six days prior have no signs of browning.

Dyanne showed the camera those bananas and they were still bright yellow and looked super fresh.

Wrapping the stems in a wet paper towel will reduce the amount of ethylene they release, which is what makes the fruit go bad faster.

Taking to the comments section, fellow TikTok users shared their thoughts on the hack.

@vickie said: “I never thought of this before, but you’re right. I love the idea of wrapping the tops.” @kennyjojo wrote: “That’s actually insane! We go through ours quick.”

Another TikToker, who goes by the handle @tipperk, tested an array of storage methods to get to the bottom of the debate and also found this wet paper towel hack to work well.

The Tiktoker also found that wrapping the stems of banana peels in just cling film helped to keep one of the bananas fresh too.

Two other methods can help preserve the ripeness of your bananas – hanging them and storing them away from certain fruits.

Hanging bananas not only keeps them from taking up valuable kitchen counter space but, more importantly, they promote air circulation, enabling ethylene gas to move away from the bananas so they ripen more slowly.

Keep bananas two to three feet away from other ethylene-emitting fruits such as apples, apricots, avocados, mangoes, prunes, pears, plums, and tomatoes.