A banana that doesn't go brown?

Clever, but is it what we really need to curb food waste? Plus, this week’s recipe: a no-bake (brown) banana, walnut and mascarpone cheesecake.

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My late father was a man irked by food waste, particularly bananas, for some reason. To drive home his point, he would eat them regardless of their condition, right down to the black, sticky, mushy stage, gobbling them theatrically while us kids looked on, gagging. He wasn’t wrong. A few brown spots or even a bit of mush do not a rotten banana make. So, I’d love to know what he’d make of the non-browning banana.

Courtesy of British biotech firm Tropic, it’s the latest brainwave in the fight against food waste. Gene-edited to stay fresh and sunny for hours twelve hours after peeling, it promises to cut down on the billions of bananas that end up in the bin each year. Clever stuff in some ways. Less waste, longer shelf life, fewer squishy, unloved ‘nanas heading to landfill. But is this really the food innovation we’ve been waiting for?

Bananas don’t seem like the worst offenders when it comes to waste. Unlike avocados, which have a ten-minute window between rock hard and decay, bananas dawdle their way through ripeness, moving from chalky green to golden yellow to freckled and finally, black and sticky. But crucially, bananas are edible at every stage. Too soft? Banana bread. Overripe? Smoothie. Actual mush? Pancakes. And yet, people still chuck them out.

Tesco, meanwhile, is trying a different approach to food waste (or perhaps they’re just testing the air on the moral high ground). In a handful of Express stores, food that’s nearing its use-by date but hasn’t been snapped up by charities or staff is now given away for free after 9.30 pm. Turn up at the right time and you might walk away with sandwiches, fruit or a ready meal that would otherwise be tossed.

On the surface, it makes perfect sense. Less waste, more affordable food, a reputation boost for Tesco. But not everyone is convinced. Some sceptics have rightly pointed out that supermarkets such as Tesco are actually a major part of the food waste problem, rejecting mountains of perfectly good produce for being the wrong size, shape or shade. What’s more, rigid supermarket contracts force farmers to overproduce when they know a hefty chunk of their crops will never even make it to the shelves.

The truth is, supermarkets have trained us to be fussy. They’ve turned us into people who expect unblemished identical bananas and apples so waxed and shiny they could double as Christmas baubles. Anything slightly off gets binned. My own children won’t touch a banana if it has so much as a freckle (and I’ve tried my dad’s eating-black-bananas routine). When did we become so repulsed by a bit of natural imperfection?

Best-before dates, relentless ‘buy one, get one free’ deals, marketing that equates aesthetics with freshness, all of it nudges us to overbuy, then over-waste.

Which brings us back to the new, genetically enhanced banana. The Cavendish, the variety we all eat, is already a product of monoculture, cloned and grown in vast plantations, shipped across the world in staggering quantities. Thick-skinned, high yielding, uniform and slow to ripen, Cavendish is a failsafe breed for export, perfect for shipping long distances to satisfy the modern sensibility for bruise-free aesthetically pristine food.

Making it last even longer and staying firmer might make logistical sense, but does it fix the real problem? If people won’t eat a banana with a few brown spots now, will they suddenly embrace one just because it’s been scientifically modified to stay yellow for an extra twelve hours?

Maybe the real solution isn’t high-tech at all. Tesco’s late-night giveaway ensures food gets eaten, but supermarkets could also, radical thought, just stock less. A non-browning banana is fine, but so is eating the perfectly good one already sitting in the fruit bowl. Apparently, other researchers at Tropic are working on slow-wilting lettuce, bruise-resistant apples and potatoes, and shrivel-proof grapes and blueberries.

But here’s an idea. Instead of welcoming produce engineered with longer shelf lives, maybe we should shift how we think about food. Stop recoiling at a bruised apple. Ignore best-before dates when the food in front of us is still perfectly fine. Use our noses. Trust our instincts. Because science is brilliant, but it can’t fix our squeamishness about slightly imperfect fruit. If we need a banana to stay fresh for half a day longer to make it acceptable, the problem isn’t with the banana. It’s with us.

That brings me neatly to a recipe that, surprise surprise, uses up overripe bananas. Please make this cheesecake. It’s the work of moments - 10 minutes to be exact - and a few hours chilling, which doesn’t count. The blacker the banana, the more delicious it will be. Promise.

Banana, walnut and burnt honey cheesecake with brown butter biscuit base