Bananas can be an odd fruit, as they can seem to stay green for absolutely ages, then become mushy, spotty, or even black almost overnight. They are often among the most wasted foods in the UK, but it is actually very easy to keep them yellow for almost a month if you know how to store them properly.

Amy Cross, a food storage expert and founder of The Cross Legacy, decided to test whether it was possible to store bananas in the fridge and was surprised to find they stayed fresh for ages in a mason jar. In a video online, Amy said: "These are the bananas I purchased on March 13th. I cut them into thirds and put them into a jar. They are 26 days old in the jar."

Storing bananas in the fridge might sound bizarre if you have never tried it, but it is actually more effective at keeping them fresh than putting them in a fruit bowl.

Bananas are very sensitive to a substance called ethylene, which is a plant hormone that fruit produces to signal that it needs to start ripening.

Fruit needs to ripen in order for it to become flavourful and soft enough to eat, but when bananas are stored with other fruit, it can cause too much ethylene to build up in the air.

This is often what causes bananas to spoil and go brown very quickly, and it is also why you should always store bananas on their own if you want to save money on your food shop.

However, bananas naturally release a lot of ethylene on their own, and there are many food storage techniques to help slow down this process, such as wrapping them in tin foil or placing them on a hanger.

The absolute best way to keep bananas fresh for longer is to store them somewhere cold and airtight, which is why placing them in a jar in the fridge is so effective.

Cold temperatures completely stop ethylene production and halt the ripening process, so they will stay yellow for a long time.

Bananas can also spoil due to a process called oxidation, in which enzymes in the fruit begin to break down as they are exposed to oxygen, turning the skin brown.

Storing bananas in a jar limits the amount of air and bacteria that can reach the fruit, which is why they can last three weeks or even longer with this storage method.

It should be noted that unripe bananas should not be stored in a fridge, since the low temperatures stop them from ripening completely.

If you place green bananas in the fridge, they stay hard and starchy forever, so only try the jar food storage method once your bananas are yellow.

When you first unpack your shopping, place bananas in a separate bowl far away from your other fruit, and once they have ripened, you can chop them into pieces to fit inside a jar.

Then simply screw on the lid of your mason jar, put it in the fridge, and it will stay tasty for weeks or up to a month.

It is best to use a wide-mouth pint mason jar to store your bananas so you can fit as many as possible, but any jar will work.