How ripe should a banana be?

A new snap that has gone viral on Instagram shows a bunch of bananas, all at different levels of ripeness. They are all labelled from numbers one through 15, with 1 being the most under-ripe and 15 being the most over-ripe.

The image, which has more than 4,700 likes, asks people to pick your 'perfect' banana from the bunch - and fruit fans have wildly different stances on which number they would grab to go.

The majority of banana fans said they would pick numbers 8 through 10 from the bunch. These fruit had no green underripe parts, with number 10 having a few brown speckles on the skin also. Some opted for a more under-ripe 6 or 7 banana, while some said they a very brown and speckled 11.

According to dailymail.co.uk, research suggests that in under-ripe bananas, starch constitutes 80-90 per cent of the carbohydrate content, which changes into free sugars as the banana ripens. When the resistant starch changes to simple sugar, a banana ripens, and studies have suggested that more ripe (yellow) bananas are easier to digest for the average person.