Banana With Edible Skin

Source: abc.net.au

A Japanese company has created a banana that has a skin you can eat. The variety is called the Mongee banana. The skin has a taste and a texture like a vegetable, somewhat like lettuce.

Setsuzo Tanaka has spent the last 40 years perfecting this hybrid. His technique involves taking banana seedlings and freezing them. He then thaws the seedlings and replants them. He dubbed the technique 'freeze-thaw awakening'.

He explains "Banana growing cells are slowly cooled down to -60 degrees Celsius and thawed to bring out the vitality of the original plant". The process makes the plants grow rapidly, cutting the typical two year cultivation process down to six months. The rapid growth leads to the thin, pliable and edible skin.

Source: abc.net.au