Bananas with edible peel developed by Japanese farmers

Japanese farmers have invented a new type of banana with edible peel using an innovative deep freezing technique.

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The Mongee banana, which can be eaten in its entirety, was pioneered by Setsuzo Tanaka, technical development manager at D&T Farm in Okayama Prefecture, western Japan.

The bananas are made using a pesticide-free cultivation technique called “freeze thaw awakening”, which involves replicating a process observed in the Ice Age by keeping the fruits in temperatures as low as minus 60 degrees Celsius.

The extreme cold is thought to trigger a state of rapid growth in the fruit, reportedly cutting the more typical two-year cultivation period for a banana plant down to around six months.

The end result is a banana which appears normal at first glance but is much sweeter than conventionally grown fruits – plus, its peel is 100 per cent edible.

Describing how the unusual fruit came about, Tetsuya Tanaka of D&T Farm told the Daily Telegraph: “It was created following research conducted by Setsuzo Tanaka who worked on this for a long time as a hobby.

“The motivation for its development was the fact he wanted to eat a banana that was delicious and safe: people can eat the peel because it is cultivated organically without chemicals.”

The fruit is not easy to get hold of. Supplies of the Mongee – which means “incredible” in Okayama dialect – are currently limited to small batches of around 30 pounds of bananas sold locally every week, each one selling for 648 yen (£4.20).

But Mr Tanaka, whose company has posted a recruitment call for banana farmers on its website, is keen for this to change: “We are currently cultivating bananas only in Japan but we are considering exporting overseas in the future.

I would like to sell theses bananas without agricultural chemicals around the world.”

Japan is no stranger to innovations when it comes to fruits: it is also famously home to square watermelons, which are cultivated in square moulds, making it easier to store and transport them.

Fruit is widely regarded as a luxury status symbol in Japan, with extravagantly wrapped packages of blemish-free seasonal produce regularly given as gifts.