# Ripening fruits and vegetables??

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripening-fruits-and-vegetables/5030>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 30, 1999, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripening-fruits-and-vegetables/5030 "1999-11-30T15:14:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Patricinus\_Scriblerus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@Patricinus\_Scriblerus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patricinus_Scriblerus)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripening-fruits-and-vegetables/5030/1 "1999-11-30T15:14:00Z")

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My little experiments have been inconclusive maybe someone out the can enlighten. Does Fruit ripen faster in a paper bag?? I was told by a co-woker that theu leave their “not quite ripe” fruits and veggies in a paper bag on the counter to ripen them faster…I thought the sun was the catalyst that ripened the fruit…please help

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There are only two things that are infinite…the Universe and Man’s stupidity…I’m not sure about the Universe though.

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**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripening-fruits-and-vegetables/5030/2 "1999-11-30T15:18:00Z")

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Bags work for those fruits, etc, that produce a ripening gas [ethylene?]. Also keep out fruit flies, etc.

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**Author:** ![lvick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d07c76/32.png) [@lvick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lvick)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripening-fruits-and-vegetables/5030/3 "1999-11-30T16:18:00Z")

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You’re right about the gas, in fact they’re working on genetically altered plants, IIRC, that won’t produce the gas so they can keep them on the self forever then gas them when they’re ready to sell 'em. I think the paper bag is to allow moisture exchange

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripening-fruits-and-vegetables/5030/4 "1999-11-30T16:45:00Z")

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Apples produce ethylene as they ripen; it’s one reason why the apples on the tree ripen at about the same time.

If you put an apple in a paper bag with, say, hothouse tomatoes, the ethylene will ripen the tomatoes until they resemble something edible. It probably works with other fruits, too.

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“East is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.” – Marx

Read “Sundials” in the new issue of Aboriginal Science Fiction. [www.sff.net/people/rothman](http://www.sff.net/people/rothman)

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**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 1999, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripening-fruits-and-vegetables/5030/5 "1999-12-01T01:15:00Z")

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It works for green bananas.

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**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 1999, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripening-fruits-and-vegetables/5030/6 "1999-12-01T04:25:00Z")

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Ethelyne gas is how they ripen bananas quickly. The fruits are picked green, and then gased in storage before they get shipped out (IIRC)