Good News for Banana Lovers: Help May Be On the Way to Slow That Rapid Over-Ripening
Date: 24.8.2012
Scientists speaking on August 22 in Philadelphia at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society described efforts to develop a spray-on coating that consumers could use to delay the ripening of those 6.4 billion pounds of bananas that people in the U.S. eat every year.
The coating is a so-called "hydrogel," a superabsorbent material like those with many medical and commercial uses, made from chitosan, a substance derived from shrimp and crab shells. Xihong Li, Ph.D., who presented the report, noted that chitosan is attracting considerable attention in efforts to keep fruits and vegetables fresher longer due to its action in killing bacteria that cause produce to rot, low cost and other properties. Until now, however, it has not been used to slow the ripening of bananas.
"We found that by spraying green bananas with a chitosan aerogel, we can keep bananas fresh for up to 12 days," said Li, who is the study's leader. "Once bananas begin to mature, they quickly become yellow and soft, and then they rot. 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."
