Preservation of bananas in three different methods

Jurgen Borici

City College of New York

Author Note

Jurgen Borici, Department of Civil Engineering, City College of New York.

This research was supported by the English Department at City College of New York.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jurgen Borici, Department of Civil Engineering, City College of New York, New York City, NY, 10031.

Contact: [email protected]

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine what would be the best way to preserve bananas. Three bananas are tested in three different places: refrigerator, freezer and the other one was left just at room temperature. Results indicated that the colder the place that they are preserved, the worse the results are. The study’s conclusions indicate that although bananas skin get blackened as the colder they get preserved, their inner part does not change that much and they are all almost edible.

Keywords: Banana, preservation, refrigerator, freezer

 

 

Introduction

Banana is a globally widespread fruit around the world. This fruit is variable in size, color, and firmness, but is usually yellow, elongated and curved. It was firstly domesticated by the farmers in Southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea going back at least 5000 BCE up to 8000 BCE. However, preserving this kind of fruit has evolved recently. For our experiment, we tried only three simple ways of preserving the bananas to see which would be a good way in the future to preserve them. We left them for three days in refrigerator, freezer and room conditions.  The hypothesis was that bananas would be best if preserved in room conditions. For that we started the experiment three days earlier and got our results.

Materials and Methods

1. Three yellow, elongated and curved bananas.
2. 1 freezer
3. 1 refrigerator

Procedure

The procedure for this experiment consisted of two phases:

First phase where we put one banana in the refrigerator with a temperature of 37 degrees Fahrenheit, one in the freezer at -1 degrees Fahrenheit and the other one in room temperature close to 70 degrees.

The second phase consisted of leaving the bananas at room temperature for some hours so that we could see the difference between them.

Results

After a four-day experiment the results were different for the bananas. We realized that our yellow bananas now had changed their colors. The one we left in room temperature was still yellow but some small black dots were added on its skin. The second one, that was left in refrigerator was yellow a greater area of black skin. The last one that was in refrigerator was still yellow in dark gray when we took it out of the freezer but within 4 hours its skin color converted in a total black.

Figure 1) The banana that was left in room conditions. (Jurgen Borici’s photography)

Figure 2) The banana that was left in the fridge

Figure 3) The banana that was left in freezer for 3 days (Jurgen Borici’s photography)

Discussion

The whole experiment was of an easy level of difficulty to conduct. Pictures of bananas were taken after the experiment to show the significant changes of their colors. These pictures are shown on the results section and labeled.

This experiment showed us that banana that was left at room temperature was better than them all, its flesh and also in skin color. The banana that was in the refrigerator was still edible but its skin color was not that good. However, in the worst shape was the frozen one as It started to melt its skin started to get more black and due to a light odor it was not enjoyable to eat it, but however it was still edible.

During the experiment, we should also mention that there have been small changes in the temperature of the freezer and refrigerator as they are used for other purposes too beside the experiment. This experiment proves the public that freezing or refrigerating bananas is not a good idea in terms of short periods of time. However, when very long term periods are considered, experiment results might be a little more different because freezing the banana would keep its flesh better for a long time compared to refrigerating or leaving it in the room temperature.

Conclusion

This simple experiment with three bananas divided in two phases showed us that one of the best ways of preserving bananas for a short period of time is leaving them in natural conditions. However, in different conditions and for different amount of time we would have different results but for now, we can only say that bananas cannot be preserved in a freezer or refrigerator.
Also, for higher-precision results specified refrigerators and freezers only for experiment purposes would be necessary.