Bananas
or: a floating refrigerator for a snack you forget
We grow a fruit that can’t make seeds, so nearly every banana in the store is a clone of the same plant, cut from another plant.1 We pick it green in Central and South America, chill it to between 56 and 58 degrees for the trip because a few degrees colder can scar it within hours2, sail it north in refrigerated containers, then pump it full of ethylene gas in sealed ripening rooms so it turns yellow right on schedule3, about 26 pounds of it per American per year4.
How it works, badly
Wait, is that real?
Yes, the clone part especially.
The clones↩
Almost every banana sold in the US and Europe is a Cavendish. It has no seeds and can’t reproduce sexually, so growers plant genetically identical cuttings. Cavendish makes up about 99% of banana exports to developed countries.
The cold trip↩
Green bananas ship at a pulp temperature of 56 to 58°F (13 to 14°C). Below 56°F they can suffer chilling injury within 2 to 24 hours, and the colder it gets, the faster it happens. Kept at 58°F in ethylene-free air, mature green bananas can wait up to four weeks.
The ripening room↩
Ripeners seal the fruit in rooms at about 58 to 68°F and 90 to 95% humidity and add ethylene, the same gas ripe fruit gives off, for 24 to 48 hours. Only 100 parts per million is needed. Depending on temperature, the fruit is ready in about 4 to 10 days.
The 26 pounds↩
Americans eat about 26 pounds of bananas per person per year, and the vast majority are imported, mostly from Central and South America.
The fine print↩
“A few degrees colder” really means anything under 56°F, and “within hours” is the fast end of that 2-to-24-hour range. Not literally every banana is a Cavendish; plantains and other varieties exist, just not usually next to the cereal. And banana bread is a perfectly good outcome.
Sources: GCCA: commodity storage guide, bananas; Wikipedia: Cavendish banana; Wikipedia: banana production in the US
Last fact-checked .