One day the banana is perfect. Bright yellow…

One day the banana is perfect. Bright yellow, firm, flavorful. But even within that same day brown spots appear on your perfectly ripe banana, its flesh turns mushy, and it's destined for the compost or at best, banana bread. But scientists are developing a way to 1 the life of ripe bananas. It's a spray-on coating made from chitosan—a substance found in crab and shrimp shells. The new gel can be 2 on bananas to slow the ripening process by up to 12 days. Like other fruit bananas remain alive after being 3 and they actually continue to respire.This means they take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide. The more the banana 4 the faster it ripens and then rots. Bananas ripen more quickly than most fruit because they don't naturally slow the 5 after being picked, in fact it speeds up, causing bananas to become mushy. Chitosan not only kills the 6 on banana's skin that then leads to rot, it also 7 slows down the respiration in the first place. So bananas won't drive you bananas.