One Thing You Don't Want To Do While Buying Bananas
What's more exciting than grocery shopping for a recipe? You picked an interesting one this time, made the list, and ask a friend to join you in your hunt. However, even baking adventures have their limits, especially when the costs of food are high and recipes require specific ingredients. As one of the many mistakes you can make when visiting a grocery store, some people manipulate products, especially in the produce section.
Removing food that you think you don't need before buying it can contribute to food waste. In 2022, Americans wasted more food than any other country, around 30% to 40% of the entire food supply (via RTS). Sometimes products are sold in bigger quantities than we would like to buy, so people end up tearing things in the store that are sold in batches, like fruit or veggies. Sadly, magic won't bring another person that needs the exact amount you just left behind — those probably will be wasted. Take bananas for example, usually sold in hands of 6 or 8. Does your recipe say to use two? It doesn't matter, take them all.
Don't tear bananas from a hand of bananas while grocery shopping
All Recipes suggests purchasing the complete hand of bananas from the store, don't worry about any extras you may think you're buying. That's because if you leave a pair, it's very likely that it won't get sold and will be discarded. You are probably just using a few for your recipe, but those extra bananas can go to good use in the upcoming weeks. For example, you can wait for that extra banana to get super ripe and bust out this moist banana bread recipe (remember that the more ripe, the better). Also, overripe bananas make great breakfasts, sauces, and puddings.
Another option is to freeze the extra bananas. BBC Good Food says frozen bananas are good for six months after freezing them. If you want to skip the banana bread and avoid brown bananas, go ahead and freeze them after arriving from the store. Ideally, bananas needs to be peeled before freezing. Start storing it in a tray until the banana is solid, and then, use a labeled freezer bag with indications like date of storage and quantity. You can freeze banana slices, and if your banana is already brown, it's better to mash it and freeze it like that. Frozen bananas make great smoothies or even ice cream.
You may think you're leaving the grocery store with extra bananas, but really, you're just being efficient with your shopping and food use.