The Complete Handbook of Bananas

Chapter 1: Understanding Bananas

Bananas are the world's most traded fruit, and one of the few that is not picked ripe. This simple fact drives nearly everything about how the fruit is grown, shipped, stored, and sold. A banana that ripens on the plant turns sweet and soft quickly, often splitting its skin and attracting insects. To survive a journey of thousands of miles by sea, the fruit must be harvested green and hard, shipped at a cool temperature, and then forced to ripen at its destination. If you are buying, selling, or using bananas professionally, you are not handling a finished product. You are handling a biological process in progress, one that you must either initiate, delay, or stop entirely, depending on your role.

Understanding bananas starts with understanding what you physically receive. A standard commercial box of bananas is a 40-pound (18.14 kg) corrugated carton, typically containing 18 to 22 "hands," which are the clusters of fruit cut from the main stalk. Each hand has between 4 and 14 individual fingers, and the fruit is packed in an interlocking pattern so that the curved outer edge of one hand nests against the concave inner curve of the one above it. The box is lined with a thin polyethylene bag. This is not casual packaging; the bag is a functional component. It is often perforated with 30 to 40 small holes, or treated with a commercial charcoal-based ethylene absorber, depending on the intended shipping time. A box of bananas