What to prevent apples, bananas, and other fruits from turning brown? It only takes one ingredient!
A few months ago I brought sliced apples over to a friend’s house and they were perplexed as to how and why they hadn’t turned brown. I thought everybody knew the trick on how to prevent cut fruits like apples and bananas from turning brown, but I was wrong! As it turns out, the little trick I’ve used all along isn’t as well-known as I thought and yet it’s so easy! I cut multiple apples at a time, use this little trick, and keep them in the fridge for days! Of course it’s best to eat certain fruits as soon as possible after cutting them, but it’s so helpful to know how to prevent fruit from turning brown.
Before I get into the explanation, I just wanted to talk for a minute about the photo shown. I wish I could say I came up with this cute idea to create palm trees and sand out of fruit, however, I didn’t. I originally found this cute idea on Pinterest (which I have a slight addiction to). Unfortunately I couldn’t find a link back to the original poster, so this is just a shout out to whomever came up with this that it’s the cutest thing I’ve seen in a long time! :)
If you want to make it yourself, you’ll need 2 oranges, 2 bananas, and 4-5 kiwi fruits sliced.
INGREDIENTS
- Sliced fruit that turns brown as it gets exposed to oxygen, like apples, bananas, and pears
- Lemon Juice
DIRECTIONS
- Any time you cut fruits like bananas, pears, and apples that you don’t want to turn brown, simply squeeze some lemon juice over them. You can use fresh, or bottled lemon juice (which I usually have on hand). No need to measure a certain amount, just squeeze a generous amount over the fruit and toss the fruit to coat. Make sure to cover the fruit tightly with plastic wrap, or place it in an air-tight container until you are ready to eat it.
Great Recipes So glad I found this site..
Does putting lemon juice on the fruit alter the taste? I would think you would taste the lemon juice on the fruit?
You do taste a subtle lemony flavor, but it’s not overwhelming. Hope this helps! :)
Another good tip that I learned when I was looking up healthy snacks for my girl scout troop: core and cut apples, then soak in water for 3-5 minutes. Next soak in lemon-lime soda for another 3-5 minutes. And then take out and put in a Baggie. You can store them for a while(not sure how long….maybe next time we will do that as an experiment). :)
Hi Megan, thanks for the tip! :)
Great tips. You helped me a lot! I am doing a science experiment at school, and I have to wrIte a report with 500 words! I am stuck on 300. Are there any other helpful tips that you know of?
What types of tips are you looking for?
look up these helpful tips:
how to peel ginger with a spoon
how to deseed pomegranate by tapping with a spoon
how to skin kiwi with a spoon
how to divide equal parts of ground beef in a plastic bag using a skewer
Thanks Andoola, I will! The kiwi/spoon trick is one of my favorite little helpful tips out there!
Why does everyone comment on sliced bananas? I want to know if there is any way to keep bananas from turning brown when they still have their skin on them? I wonder how the produce department in most supermarkets do it? I have known about sliced fruit and lemon juice for a long time but no one addresses unsliced fruit. Any information you could provide will be very much appreciated.
Thanking you in advance for your anticipated help in this matter.
Sincerely,
Cammy Phillips
Hi Cammy,
I don’t really have any great suggestions. The one thing I do with bananas is once they are all ripe, I put them in the fridge. The peels will turn brown/black pretty quickly, but the inside part of the banana stays fresh! Unfortunately, that’s all I’ve got for ya!
So you never said your trick on how to keep fruit from turning brown! That is what I signed onto this page for!
Hi Patti, if you scroll down to the bottom you’ll see the instructions. All you need is a little lemon juice! Fresh or bottled, doesn’t matter. Just squeeze some lemon juice over apples, bananas, etc., and they won’t turn brown.
Pineapple juice works too.
Thanks for the tip, Cassiopia!
You can put the lemon juice in a spray bottle also and lightly spray the fruit.
Thanks for the tip, Jean!
Great tips. Thanks Ashley
You’re welcome! Thanks for stopping by! :)