Banana Ripening Humidifiers and It's Use

Ripening rooms are very important for proper and efficient banana ripening; not just any room will suffice. A commercial ripening room must have the following:

The room must be as air tight as possible to prevent ethylene loss, used and given off by ripening bananas. This also prevents ethylene from entering unwanted areas (like another banana rooms or cold storage rooms holding ethylene-sensitive items).

The room must be properly insulated to be able to control the temperature within a degree or so.

The room must have adequate refrigeration capacity to accurately control the pulp temperature.

The room may need heating equipment in order to maintain proper room temperature in cold weather.

The room must have adequate air circulation. Because uniform pulp temperatures throughout the load are essential for even ripening, the refrigerated air in the room must circulate at all times and uniformly throughout the load. For pressurized, forced air ripening rooms, this is typically inherent in the design. However, for non-pressurized rooms, the boxes of bananas should be ‘air stacked’. That is, the boxes should be offset to allow the air to circulate among all the boxes since a non-pressurized room design will not pass air through boxes but will pass around them.

Monitor pulp temperatures closely:

Avoid ‘chilling’ or ‘cooking’ the fruit. Bananas are very sensitive to temperatures. Chilling will occur if the fruit is subject to temperatures below 56°F (13°C) for several hours. It causes the peel to have a smoky, dull Grey appearance. This may not show up for 18 to 24 hours after chilling occurs.

Cooked bananas result from excessively high temperatures; avoid temperatures above 65°F (18°C). The peel will have a brown to orange appearance. The fruit may be soft and have a short shelf life.

Maintain proper humidity levels:

For best ripening results, humidity should be 85 to 95%. If the humidity is too low, install Banana Ripening Humidifiers; wetting the floor of the room with water may increase the humidity but may cause sanitation issues.