How do I stop fruit going off so quickly?
How ethylene gas controls fruit ripening, and how to use that to slow down or speed up individual fruits.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 15 min
- Read
- 2 min
Short answer
Separate ethylene producers from ethylene-sensitive produce — bananas, apples and avocados release it; berries, leafy greens and citrus are damaged by it. Keep bananas away from everything else, refrigerate what tolerates cold, and store what doesn't in a cool dark place.
Fruit ripening is driven largely by ethylene, a gas that fruit produces and responds to. Once you know which fruits produce a lot and which are sensitive to it, most storage decisions follow — and you can deliberately speed up an unripe avocado or slow down a bunch of bananas.
Step by step
- Separate the strong ethylene producers from everything else.Bananas, apples, avocados, tomatoes, pears and stone fruit produce the most. A fruit bowl containing bananas ripens everything else in it fast.
- Keep berries in the fridge, unwashed, in a ventilated container.Washing before storage is the main cause of berries going mouldy. Wash them as you eat them.
- Store bananas separately at room temperature.Refrigerating them blackens the skin, though the flesh stays edible. Separating the bunch slows ripening slightly.
- Keep apples in the fridge if you want them to last.They keep for weeks refrigerated and days at room temperature — but they'll ripen everything stored near them.
- Ripen hard avocados and stone fruit in a paper bag with a banana.The bag traps the ethylene the banana produces. It works reliably and takes a day or two.
- Once ripe, refrigerate avocados and stone fruit to hold them.Cold stops the ripening process. Ripen at room temperature, then chill to pause.
- Keep citrus somewhere cool and airy, not sealed in a bag.Trapped moisture causes mould. A bowl with airflow is better than the salad drawer.
- Freeze fruit that's about to turn.Overripe bananas, berries and stone fruit all freeze well for smoothies and baking. It's the alternative to throwing them away.
Tips
- A ripe banana in a paper bag ripens almost anything within a day or two — a genuinely useful trick when you've bought rock-hard avocados.
- One mouldy berry contaminates the punnet quickly. Check and remove any soft ones as soon as you get home.
- Bananas ripen fastest as a bunch. Separating them slows it down slightly, and wrapping the stems does a little more.
- Cut fruit browns through enzymatic oxidation — lemon juice slows it considerably.
Common mistakes
- Storing bananas in the fruit bowl with everything else — They're a strong ethylene producer and will ripen everything around them within days.
- Washing berries before storing — Surface moisture is what causes mould. Wash them as you eat them.
- Refrigerating unripe avocados and stone fruit — Cold stops the ripening process, so they never ripen properly.
- Sealing citrus in plastic bags — Trapped moisture causes mould. They need airflow.
Questions people ask
How do I ripen an avocado quickly?
Put it in a paper bag with a banana or an apple. The bag traps the ethylene they release, which accelerates ripening — usually within a day or two.
Should fruit go in the fridge?
It depends. Berries, grapes and apples keep much better refrigerated. Bananas, citrus and unripe stone fruit and avocados do better at room temperature until ripe.