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The new banana spray could help the banana industry reduce wasteSay goodbye to emergency banana bread baking, now it’s possible to keep bananas ripe for long enough to eat an entire bunch, claim scientists.
[Related article: How to make the best banana bread]
Researchers in China have developed a new spray-on coating that prevents bananas from ‘breathing’ through their porous skin. The ‘breathing’ allows the fruit to continue to make sugar as it ripens, which allows bacteria to rot the flesh. By coating the bananas, sugars are made much more slowly, reducing the amount for the bacteria to feed on.
The coating is made from chitosan, a substance created from the shells of sea creatures, shrimp and crab.
Lead researcher Dr Xihong Li said: "We found that by spraying green bananas with a chitosan aerogel, we can keep bananas fresh for up to 12 days.
"We have developed a way to keep bananas green for a longer time and inhibit the rapid ripening that occurs. Such a coating could be used at home by consumers, in supermarkets or during shipment of bananas."
But unfortunately you won’t be able to buy a bottle of this banana-saving substance just yet, as the ingredients used need to be replaced with more readily available options suitable for mass production.
So for now, we’ll just have to keep using up our black bananas in banana bread. What a shame.
