Why Are Shoppers' Bananas Not Ripening?

Everyone has their own tricks for scoring the best produce at the grocery store. Perhaps you shop early on your local grocer's restock day, or you might thump your watermelons to pick out the best one. Many people think picking a bunch of mostly green bananas will ensure they ripen just right at home, but it's not uncommon for green bananas to never ripen at all. Online forums are filled with frustrated shoppers posting pictures of evergreen bananas they bought weeks earlier, with dozens of commenters sharing similar experiences.

Jackie Newgent, a RDN, chef, culinary wellness expert, and author of "The Plant-Based Diabetes Cookbook," explains that the bananas' journey from farm to store is a big reason why some bananas don't ripen. Bananas endure one of the longest commutes to reach grocery stores across the United States. Most of the country's bananas are imported from Central and South America and require temperature-controlled transportation. "If bananas are stored at too cool a temperature from farm to market, that may interfere with the ripening process," Newgent says. That's because colder temperatures are used to pause the ripening process during transport, which then necessitates exposure to ethylene gas — a gas bananas naturally produce in their maturation cycle — in order to restart the ripening process once more. 

Readying bananas for their journey creates another problem that impacts the fruit's ability to ripen. "If bananas were picked when they were too young and green, they may not ripen properly," Newgent explains. Unfortunately, in order for bananas to survive the trip, they are harvested while they are still green, so getting the timing right is no easy feat.

You might not be able to change the process bananas go through to get to your local grocery store, but there are ways you can ripen fruit faster. "Seal up a bunch of bananas in a paper bag along with an avocado or apple," Newgent suggests. "That'll allow the trapped ethylene gas to work its ripening magic. More specifically, it helps to speed up the breakdown of starch to sugar and to go from a green to yellow color." The addition of the extra fruit in the bag will spur on even more ethylene gas production.This is one of the best ways to ripen a banana because you can monitor the process and enjoy it as soon as it reaches your desired ripeness.

Placing bananas in a warm spot is another way to encourage the release of ethylene gas, and if you plan on using your bananas for baking, cranking up the heat can quickly turn firm, green bananas soft and sweet. To do this, bake unpeeled bananas in the oven at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for up to 20 minutes. The peels will turn black, and the flesh will be soft and sugary. Another easy and speedy option is to ripen bananas using an air fryer.