Going bananas.
Picking. Testing. Ripening. And what one company does to get you bananas that are just ripe.
1-Minute NomNom
If we have unripe bananas, we can put them into a plastic or paper bag to trap the ethylene gas. This will speed up the ripening (we can also do the same for unripe tomatoes).
Companies that supply bananas use the same idea, but of course on an industrial scale. They put the bananas in an enclosed chamber and turn on the ethylene gas. That way, they can time when they need to get the bananas ripened for the supermarket shelves. You can see how this is done in this video by Dole:
photo: racorn/depositphotos