What Causes Bananas to Ripen?
Bananas are the world’s fourth-largest fruit crop. The sweetness of the desert banana and the versatility of the plantain as a staple food account for the banana’s popularity. But ripe bananas are very perishable and don’t ship well. This begs the question–how do ripe bananas get to our grocery stores and our kitchen tables without spoiling? To understand this, you need to know a little about what makes a banana ripen. Bananas Begin to Ripen as Soon as They Are Harvested Commercial bananas are harvested when they have become plump, but are still green. Once the bananas are picked, hormones in the fruit convert certain amino acids into ethylene gas. Ethylene gas, in turn, stimulates the production of several enzymes that change the color, texture and flavor of the banana. The Banana Becomes Sweet and Soft jQuery(document).ready(function(){ jQuery(‘#jsArticleStep1 span.image a:first’).attr(‘href’,’http://i.ehow.co.uk/images/a04/bj/7q/what-causes-bananas-ripen-3.1-800X800.jpg’); }); Enzy
