Why Bananas Travel Green but Turn Yellow Later

Why are bananas transported green, then turn yellow near the people who buy them? Follow Bea from a grower's harvest decision to a breakfast plate, with a suitcase and a very inconvenient biological clock. Follow Bea along a Cavendish export journey: mature-green harvest, carefully managed transport, ethylene signalling and the starch-to-sugar changes inside a ripening banana. 00:00 A very inconvenient suitcase 00:32 Green is a colour, not a birthday 01:01 Why not send it yellow? 01:21 The fruit is still doing things 01:55 Colder is not always better 02:21 A schedule with no pause button 03:30 The signal, not the sugar 04:03 Bea has her own message system 04:35 The sweetness was a building project 05:08 Why the coat changes colour 05:40 The room has a job beyond the signal 06:14 Yellow is an appointment 06:45 Three shortcuts that do not solve it 07:19 Breakfast, at last Sources and further reading UC Davis: Banana (Cavendish) https://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/produ... UC Davis: Why do bananas sometimes not ripen in the ripening chamber? https://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/ask-p... Remote quality monitoring in the banana chain https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... The Starch Is (Not) Just Another Brick in the Wall: Primary Metabolism of Sugars During Banana Ripening https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... Proteome changes in banana fruit peel tissue in response to ethylene and high-temperature treatments https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... Banana Link: All About Bananas https://www.bananalink.org.uk/all-abo... UC Davis: Banana (Specialty) https://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/produ... Banana Ripening: Implications of Changes in Glycolytic Intermediate Concentrations https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16667... UC Davis: Do bananas respond to ethylene below 16 degrees C? https://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/ask-p... Original story, character designs and animation for The Curious Plate. Subscribe for the stories hidden in ordinary food.