“How To Deal With(A) Upcoming Rotting Banana

And

What is The Best Way to Preserve Them”

Israel Osorio

The City College of New York

Abstract

In order to determine which banana(3 in total) would be more effective to be preserved, I conducted the experiment of putting one in the freezer, one in the fridge and the last one left in on the kitchen countertop. The question we were trying to answer was, “How effective are freezing and refrigeration for preserving bananas in comparison to the degradation rate under room temperature?” This experiment I conducted took 4 days. Throughout those 4 days, I jotted down my observations on what I noticed between all three bananas. Along with setting these bananas in specific locations, other factors that I took notice was the temperature of both the fridge and the freezer, the amount of times either door was open on the fridge and other factors that may apply. Overall, my results gave the conclusion that freezing bananas is the best option when preserving rather than leaving other bananas under room temperature

Introduction

All households may have a type of fruit in their homes whether it is an apple, orange and even a banana. Sometimes we don’t get to consume these fruits before they spoil. For bananas, what others tend to do is that if they(people) notice any brown/black spot on the skin then they will automatically throw it to the garbage. But it does not have to be that way, there are certain ways that you can preserve your fruits, in this case bananas. But what is the best way to preserve a Banana? Another question we should be asking ourselves is, “How effective are freezing and refrigeration for preserving bananas in comparison to the degradation rate under room temperature?” If we were to locate three bananas in three different locations(freezer, fridge, kitchen) at three different temperatures then the one placed inside the freezer will become preserved because a banana has water inside it, therefore once it has contact with low temperatures then that water will freeze making the whole banana freeze as well.

Materials

• Three Bananas
• Thermometer
• A Fridge/Freezer
• Knife

Procedure

           After gathering the three bananas that I would be using for my experiment, I jotted down my observations before placing them in their locations. All three were good meaning that it was a bright yellow color with minor brown/black spots. By using a thermometer, I checked the temperature of both the fridge and freezer. Also, I distinguished which were going to be my control and variables. Two of the bananas, specifically the ones that would be placed inside the fridge and freezer were going to be my variable 1 and 2 because those are the ones being affected with a colder temperature. On the other hand, the other one banana being left on the kitchen countertop would be my control because it will remain at a temperature that is usually used to. After gathering my information, I located all three in their specific locations(freezer, fridge, kitchen) and left them there for about 4 days. After 4 days passed, I gathered all three bananas and took my observations on all of them. First thing I noticed was the skin of the banana. Two of them(fridge and kitchen) were black, and the one placed in the freezer had a light brown color to it. Later, I cut through the middle of the bananas to determine which maintained its original state like the beginning and that was the one put in the freezer. After cutting them, I peeled the skin to see if there were black/brown spots around the banana and there was, but only for the ones placed in the fridge and kitchen. Overall, the one placed in the freezer became preserved.

Results

           Bananas responded to low temperatures after placing two of the three bananas in the fridge and freezer. My experiment began March 4th at 3pm. After one hour, the banana placed in the freezer automatically turned brown, was very cold and it also hardened(froze). On the other hand, both the fridge banana and the kitchen banana remained the same and slowly started to turn brown as hours passed. Overall, the fridge and kitchen banana were very soft and black while the freezer banana had a light brown color and it was sweating off the water since it was frozen. Also once cut in the middle, the banana placed in the fridge maintained preserved.After leaving all three bananas in their specific locations for three days, the experiment resulted that the banana that was placed in the freezer became better preserved.

Discussion

            Overall this answered the question that is much more effective in freezing bananas rather than putting them in the fridge and on the kitchen counter top in order to get preserved. This is because, the water that is in the fruit when exposed to cold temperatures that water will automatically therefore making the whole banana freeze and stopping the process of it rotting. Temperature on the fridge was 15 degrees Fahrenheit and the freezer was at 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Another consideration was seeing how many times were either doors from the fridge open, in 4 days the fridge door was open 2.5 more times than the freezer door. One of the errors that may have occurred is that I didn’t take pictures of all three bananas in the beginning, this can be extremely helpful because when I talk about my results, I can show how it changed from day 1 to day 4. Another factor was that even though the experiment was conducted for 4 days, I forgot to take out all bananas instead I took them out yesterday March 9th so being left there one more day can also affect my results. Furthermore, is much more effective freezing compared to normal room temperature and the fridge.

Conclusion       

           After trying to answer the question, “How effective are freezing and refrigeration for preserving bananas in comparison to the degradation rate under room temperature?” we came with to the conclusion that, freezing bananas is much more effective for preserving rather than leaving them under room temperature. This is because when you put a banana in the freezer, the water from the fruit will freeze making it be preserved and stay at its original state. If not think about this example, why do you think frozen chocolate covered bananas taste so good? Overall, if you want to preserve bananas or any other fruit,  it’s better for you to place it in the freezer.

Images

Figure #1

Left: Kitchen Countertop

Middle: Fridge

Right: Freezer

Figure #2

Banana Placed on the Kitchen

Counter Top

Figure #3

Banana Place in the Fridge

Figure #4

Banana Placed in the Freezer