Expert: Carol Schlitt - 1/28/2007

Question
How long can you store organic fruit in the refrigerator before they rot? How do you explain the black spots that develop on bananas? Are you actually supposed to store fruits in the refrigerator?

Answer
Hi Hong-Siang,

Whether fruit is organically grown or not, the length of time fruit can stay fresh in the refrigerator varies from fruit to fruit.  For example, apples can last up to a month in a 37 degree refrigerator but strawberries last only a few days.

A good chart for recommended storage of fresh fruits in the refrigerator can be found at: http://fruitandvegetablesafety.tamu.edu/Consumers/Safe_Food_Storage.pdf

The black spots on bananas are aging spots. These are caused by ethylene gas that is used to ripen the bananas. Bananas are harvest rock-hard green and sent around the world in this state.  To ripen, they are placed in ehylene gas chambers to turn them from green to yellow.  As the banana ages, the yellow turns to brown spots and eventually completely black. This is just the aging process of the banana. You can slow down the process by keeping them in a cooler place (not refrigerator -- that will speed up the darkening of the skin). Amazingly, once a banana is ripe you can keep it in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks!

For more information about bananas, check out this website: http://www.banana.com/howtobuy.html

I hope this has answered your questions. If you have additional questions, please let me know.

Carol