Should Bananas Be Stored In Refrigerator? Dietitian Shares Inputs

Bananas are our ultimate comfort fruit. They are pulpy, soft, easily available, economical, and have a sweet taste. Loaded with potassium, fiber, magnesium, and manganese, among others, bananas are tropical fruits, and so need a certain temperature range to ripen up. But, many of us refrigerate after buying them. Is it a good practice? Silver Sethi, dietitian, SCI Hospital & Six Sigma Clinics, weighs in.

Storing Bananas In Refrigerator Might Not Be Good

As mentioned before, bananas have a lot of nutrients and thus eating them regularly will benefit you in many ways. Some good the fruit does to your body are:

• Prevents constipation
• Betters blood sugar levels
• Improves kidney, gut, and heart health
• Keeps you feeling full and aids in weight loss
• Supports post-exercise recovery

But, the advantages bananas can have for your body depend a lot on how they are stored. "Bananas, being an originally tropical fruit, are extremely temperature sensitive. This means their ripening, enzymatic activity, flavour, cellular structure, and physical appearance will be affected if we refrigerate them," Ms. Sethi attests.

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She adds that the blackening of the banana skin and the fruit losing its firmness when kept in a fridge is a consequence. "If an unripe banana is placed at a regular temperature anywhere outdoors, it will ripen quickly. However, if the same unripe banana is stored in a refrigerator, the ripening process stops," Ms. Sethi highlights.

This affects the enzymatic activity and the fruit may lose its nutrient value. "The enzymatic activity is affected, inhibiting the nutrients, affecting the usual texture, taste, and sweetness," she says, adding that this process makes the bananas a "little bitter, softer," where they lose their original colour. "They are (also) prone to decay faster," she points out.

Ms. Sethi suggests that one should avoid keeping unripe bananas in the refrigerator altogether, but if the intention is to preserve ripened bananas for some "culinary experiments, or using them for desserts and smoothies, one may take a call accordingly."

As an end note, the dietitian adds that the correct way to store unripe or just-ripened bananas is to simply keep them on the kitchen counter. "Storing the bananas in the open helps them to complete the enzymatic activity, achieve their desired ripeness, retain firmness, original texture taste, and nutrient density," she wraps up.

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