How to Keep Bananas Fresh In the Summer (Expert Tips!)

In my almost 20 years of working at The FruitGuys, I’ve learned a thing or two about how to keep bananas fresh in the summer. There are a surprising number of similarities between what we do for an office fruit delivery and what I do with my bananas at home. In this article, I’ll share a few of the tricks we use in our facilities and how you can apply them in your break room or kitchen.

Behind the Scenes at The FruitGuys: How We Baby Our Bananas

A few weeks ago, I was giving a tour of our San Francisco facility, and I stopped the group in front of a case of bananas.

“When it comes to keeping bananas fresh during delivery, temperature is key,” I explained.

The case was swaddled in a banana blanket to warm the fruit and help it ripen. I pulled the blanket back and asked our guests to reach into the case and put their hands between the top and middle layer of bananas. They did, and their eyes went wide—they could feel the heat coming off the fruit!

In our years of preparing bananas for office fruit delivery, we’ve found that adding a blanket to a case of greener bananas can help them ripen faster. It’s one of the tricks we use to make sure we deliver bananas that are just the right color (yellow with green tips). We also take pulp temperatures when a new batch of bananas arrives in our facility to measure how warm they are inside. Then we store them carefully and adjust how we treat them depending on the conditions—covering them if they’re too cold, or spreading them out and adding airflow if they’re too warm.

Delivering fresh fruit is a delicate balancing act in the summer, so we also offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee just in case the heat gets the best of us.

Why Summer Is a Hazard for Bananas (and Other Fruits)

We go to all of this trouble because bananas are very sensitive to temperature. They’re a tropical fruit and therefore do well in heat up to a point (here are some more fun banana facts). But once their internal temperatures get above the mid-60s, they start to quickly ripen, soften, and even create their own heat that speeds up the ripening process.

I find it fascinating how ripening fruit holds onto and emits warmth. That’s what I was showing our guests on the tour that day. It’s also why delivering the ideal color of bananas is so much harder in the summer.

Bananas ripen much faster in summer temperatures of 80 degrees and above. And once that ripening starts and the fruit warms up, it’s really hard to slow it down. Starches start turning to sugars, and if you’re not careful, you can end up with an overripe banana that’s soft and mushy with a black-spotted peel. Bananas aren’t the only fruit that has this issue. Once fruits like peaches, nectarines, and pears start to ripen and soften, it’s hard to stop them, too. That’s why we add firmer peaches and nectarines to our boxes in the summer—so they’re not mushy when they get to you.

How to Keep Bananas Fresh in Your Break Room or Kitchen

First, keep a close eye on the bananas that you buy or have delivered. They should arrive yellow with green tips, at the perfect ready-to-eat stage—at least if they come from The FruitGuys. Bananas at a later stage of ripening will be trickier to keep fresh.

Once you have your bananas, try these tips:

• Separate them from your other fruits. Bananas and other fruits like apples produce a gas called ethylene that speeds up the ripening process. Separating different types of fruit from each other can help prevent ethylene buildup.
• Keep them away from direct sunlight. Just as you would with other fruits that taste best at room temperature, keep your bananas in a cool spot away from direct sunlight. This will prevent their internal temperature from getting too high.
• Let them breathe. Airflow is key to keeping your bananas cool and fresh, especially in the summer. Space your bunches apart and consider a basket or rack that lets them breathe and gives the ethylene gas a chance to escape. Don’t store them in a drawer!

Can You Put Bananas In the Fridge? 

I wish we could all just put bananas in the fridge, but they don’t like the cold. It makes their peels turn gray—and no one wants to eat a gray banana, even if it still tastes good! For the best look and taste, keep your bananas on the counter.

Maybe in my next life, I’ll deliver something less temperature-sensitive. Like pillows. But for now, I’ll keep working with my team and our partners to fine-tune the art and science of fruit delivery—warm bananas, firm peaches, and all.