Do you feel like you’re being cheated every time you buy fruit? And if the secret lies in the storage and not the choice of your fruits…
It’s old knowledge, your grandmother surely knew it but yet this knowledge has fallen into oblivion. Yet it is important to know that you have to pay attention to the conservation of fruit and it starts at the market or the supermarket!
We all make this mistake. We take several families of fruits and hop all in the same bag, often in plastic as well. They all end up in the tastefully chosen fruit basket. You are proud to know that you are going to eat your 5 fruits and vegetables a day. Except that at the time of tasting your pear or your strawberries, well they are already rotten.
To understand what happened, analyze the fruits and vegetables around them. If you find a banana or an apple that is already good, made around, then you have your culprit.
Bananas and apples accelerating rot
This accelerated ripening phenomenon is due to the presence of ethylene. It is a plant hormone that takes the form of an indistinguishable gas. External factors, such as the lack of water, light can favor this gas which disperses before our eyes.
Except that some fruits are more sensitive to this gas. They are called “climacteric” fruits, which include apples and bananas. Except that these two fruits in particular, diffuse a large quantity of this gas. So in contact with them, other fruits and vegetables will rot.
Bananas and apples are not alone in being sensitive to ethylene. Kiwis, peaches, tomatoes, pears, figs are also considered climacteric.
On the other hand, non-climacteric fruits such as citrus fruits, pineapples or strawberries are not more protected. In contact with fruits sensitive to ethylene, these fruits will not go through the “ripe” box but they will simply age and rot.
Conversely, if you want to ripen a climacteric fruit, a slightly ripe banana will be your ally. Place them close together and the trick will be in the bag.