Banana: Weight Distribution and Peel Ratio

Banana Weight: What You’re Actually Buying

When you buy bananas by weight, roughly 35–40% of what you’re paying for is inedible peel. Understanding this ratio matters for food costing, nutritional labeling, and waste management. The 🍌 banana’s peel-to-flesh ratio is one of the higher values among commonly eaten fruits — higher than an apple or pear, comparable to a citrus fruit, but lower than a pineapple or pomegranate.

Peel-to-Flesh Ratio by Variety

Variety	Whole Fruit Weight (g)	Peel Weight (g)	Flesh Weight (g)	Peel %
Cavendish (medium)	118–136	44–52	72–84	36–39%
Cavendish (large)	152–180	55–66	94–118	36–38%
Lady Finger	60–90	22–35	38–58	36–40%
Plantain (green)	150–300	65–120	85–185	40–43%
Red Banana	100–150	38–57	62–95	36–40%

Plantains have a consistently higher peel fraction because their peel is thicker and more fibrous — adapted for a fruit typically cooked rather than eaten raw.

How Ripeness Changes the Ratio

As a banana ripens, the peel loses water faster than the flesh. This means the peel becomes a smaller fraction of total weight over time — but only slightly:

Ripeness Stage	Whole Fruit (g, medium)	Peel (g)	Flesh (g)	Peel %
Stage 1 (green)	132	53	79	40%
Stage 3 (turning)	128	50	78	39%
Stage 5 (ripe)	122	46	76	38%
Stage 7 (overripe)	115	38	77	33%

At stage 7, the peel has lost significant water and is thinner and lighter, while the flesh retains more of its mass (now as sugars rather than starch). The edible fraction actually increases as a percentage in overripe fruit.

Center of Mass

The center of mass of a whole banana does not sit at the geometric midpoint. The stem end (proximal end, near the hand attachment) is denser and wider than the tip. For a typical medium Cavendish:

• Center of mass location: Approximately 35–40% of the total length from the stem end
• This means the banana is stem-heavy and will balance on a fulcrum point closer to the stem than the tip
• The center of mass shifts slightly toward the tip as the stem dries and lightens during post-harvest storage

This weight distribution is relevant to the slip-science analysis of how a banana peel behaves underfoot — the mass distribution affects how the peel deforms under load.

Commercial Pricing Implications

Most fresh banana retail is priced per kilogram of whole fruit. The edible yield — the flesh fraction the consumer actually consumes — is approximately 60–65% of the purchase weight. On a per-edible-gram cost basis:

Retail price (per kg whole)	Effective cost per kg edible flesh
$1.00/kg	~$1.60/kg edible
$1.50/kg	~$2.40/kg edible
$2.00/kg	~$3.20/kg edible

This makes banana one of the least expensive fruits per edible gram in most markets, despite the high peel fraction, because of the low raw purchase price.

Peel as Food Waste

Banana peel represents the largest fraction by weight of banana food waste. Globally, approximately 35–40 million tonnes of banana peel are discarded annually — comparable to the total food production of many countries. The 🍌 peel is not nutritionally empty: it contains significant dietary fiber, potassium, B vitamins, and bioactive phenolic compounds.

See waste utilization for a full account of banana peel applications in food, pharmaceuticals, and materials science.

The edible flesh composition is covered in macronutrients, while the stage-by-stage physical changes during ripening are detailed in ripening stages.

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Related Pages

• Banana Physical Dimensions
• Banana Density and Buoyancy
• Banana Waste Utilization
• Banana Macronutrients