Why do bananas stored in 'fridges go bad so quickly, while those left at room temperature age nicely?
A couple hours at 40 degrees leaves even the hardiest banana bruised and mushy. Why?
~ Complacency is far more dangerous than outrage ~
Well, first I came across this
There was also this statement:
Well, shut my mouth. It’s also illegal to put squirrels down your pants for the purposes of gambling.
I’m Chiquita Banana
And I’m here to say
Bananas taste the best
When they’re a certain way
When they are flecked with brown
And have a golden hue
Bananas taste their best
And are the best for you.
You can put them in a salad
You can put them in a pie…EYE
Any way you want to eat them
It’s impossible to beat them
Now bananas like the climate
At the very very tropical equator;
So you should never put bananas
In the refrigerator.
[whew] Sorry. Just had to let that out. Somebody open a window.
Uke
Mullinator,
The statement you quoted (where did you get that, BTW? I couldn’t find it on the Dole site) said, " [Bananas] may be stored in [a] refrigerator. Skin will turn black but fruit remains edible."
Edible? I suppose so, but hardly appetizing. Call me crazy, but I think a banana with spots the color of a plum and the consistency of tapioca pudding is pretty nasty!
The Dole site you linked to had this line: “You can store bananas in the refrigerator if you want to keep them for a longer time. However, the peel of this tropical fruit will darken. But the banana inside will remain firm and delicious.”
All I can say is, “bull!” The banana inside will become smushy and gushy.
Doesn’t this happen to anybody else’s bananas upon refrigeration? Am I alone in my banana woes?
~ Complacency is far more dangerous than outrage ~
[silently indicates the final stanza in the Chiquita Banana Song]
Hey, ya got me. I can’t actually think of a time I put a banana in the fridge, but I have heard that they turn bad quickly (like your experience). I found the 2nd quote on a food storage site, sorry but I don’t remember the link.
Both sites said the same basic thing, but I had my doubts about just how right they were. Just thought I would put up the info I found.
I hate to agree with an authority such as Chiquita Banana, but when she says
she’s full of it. Bananas taste the best when they’re almost green.
J’ai assez vécu pour voir que différence engendre haine.
Stendhal
By the way, I meant disagree.
J’ai assez vécu pour voir que différence engendre haine.
Stendhal
And all us old kids were silently singing
I’m Chiquita Banana
And I’m here to say
Put some rubber in your blubber
And you’ll bounce away!
Guess I’m going to have to take the pro-fridge view. I often put bananas in the refrigerator (I used to live without airconditioning–summers play hell on fresh fruit). My experience has been that the peels go dark immediately, but the fruit doesn’t get mushy any faster than at room temp.
As for why it happens, tho, I haven’t the foggiest. Someone be a good kid and find some cites for us, huh? 
-andros-
When I worked produce in a grocery store, all shipments of bananas had to have their temperature taking at delivery. Below a certain tempurature you knew they would turn black in a few days. I don’t remember the temperature, but it was well above freezing. A refridgerator is well below the blacking temperature. They are a tropical fruit after all.
Hey, everyone.
This is my first post, so I’m still getting used to the format. I found a site for the University of Florida about the storage and ripening of bananas. It’s at http://hammock.ifas.ufl.edu/txt/fairs/41041. Sorry that it’s not a direct link, I havn’t quite gotten the hang of doing that yet. Hopes this helps to shed some light on the situation!
~Isn’t ‘Common Sense’ a contradiction?~
OOPS! I guess it is a direct link. Cool!
Never store your refrigerator in a banana; it makes it soggy and hard to light. Oh, sorry, I guess that clause was from a different joke.
Ray
Oh come one, Nano, you KNOW there ain’t no sanity clause.
I agree with Arnold; bananas are tastier when they’re yellow-verging-on-green.
I’d say the Chiquita company was trying to educate the immigrant classes about the viability of bananas as a food, and figured “Hell, if we can get the Wogs to buy our bananas when they’re overripe, we’ll throw out fewer bananas!”
But you know me and my conspiracy theories.
Uke
Any truth that people need those ‘banana tree’ things? You know a hook so you hang your bananas on so they stay suspended.
Handy, it depends on how your family eats bananas. If you eat them before they totally ‘ripen’ (“flecked with brown and have a golden hue” [to the sound of clacking castinets and marimbas]) then it maketh no difference, because the hard skins keep the fruit from bruising just laying on a firm surface. However, once they ‘ripen,’ then the tree things are nice cause bananas will bruise from laying on a hard surface. The real trick with bananas is trying to eat a whole bunch within the time frame that you most enjoy them. 
FYI, Bananas are best eaten vitamin-wise when they’re ripe, i.e., a little fleckage is going on.
I know, they’re not as tasty, but it’s good for you!
Anyway, in my experience, putting them in the fridge turns them black but not mushy.
U. I. says:
Weren’t those “wogs” as you so charmingly call them the people that would be more familiar with bananas? I would imagine it’s the honkies that needed the song!
J’ai assez vécu pour voir que différence engendre haine.
Stendhal
The immigrant classes of the time of the jingle’s composition would have been eastern Europeans both Jewish and gentile, Italians and other mediterraneans, etc.
I used “Wogs” because the use of a term so loony, so evocative of the Colonel Blimp classes of Britain (as in "Let’s give the Wogs a whiff of the grape), might be construed by some as humorous.
“Wog” being an derogatory acronym used by the Imperial forces of Britain during their occupation of India, standing ironically for “Worthy Oriental Gentleman.”
Arnold, if you are actually a Wog, I offer my humblest apologies for giving offense.
– Uke.
“The joke is…” – Charlie McCarthy