How to tell if an avocado has gone bad

Avocado is a delicious and healthy product that is an ingredient in many cuisines and is well-loved around the world. However, we often have trouble determining whether we’re holding a ripe enough avocado in our hands. If the avocado is spoiled, then you should not eat it – there will be clearly no health benefits from such a product. In addition, an overripe avocado acquires an unpleasant, rather specific taste. To avoid disappointment, read this article to learn how to determine avocado quality and how to store the fruit to keep it fresh longer.

[править]Step

[править]Check Avocado Quality

1. Assess how the skin of the avocado looks on the outside. If you see spots of mold on the surface of the fruit or the avocado emits an unpleasant odor, then it is dangerous to eat such a fruit. If the fruit is bruised, severely damaged, or some parts are much softer than others, the avocado is likely spoiled.^[1]
   
2. See the color of the avocado. The color of the avocado skin depends on the variety of the plant. The most popular variety of avocado, Haas, has a skin color that changes from dark green to maroon as the fruit ripens.^[2] If the rind of this variety of avocado is completely blackened, this indicates that the fruit is overripe.
   
   • You can also find other varieties of avocados in Russian stores, such as “Fuerte”, “Pinkerton” and “Ettinger”. As a rule, the fruits of these varieties of avocado remain green even when ripe.^[3]
3. Take an avocado and press it lightly with your fingers. Be careful – if you squeeze the fruit too hard, marks will remain on the surface. If the avocado is ripe, you will feel that the surface of the fruit is not very hard. If you lightly pressed your finger on the skin, and a depression formed on it, then most likely the avocado has already begun to spoil.^[4]
   
   
4. Look at the stalk of the avocado to determine the quality of the fruit. Some experts recommend determining the ripeness of an avocado by using the stalk (“tail”) of the fruit. If the stalk separates easily from the fruit, this indicates that the avocado is ripe. Also, when you remove the stalk, you can see the pulp of the fruit.^[5] It is worth noting that this method justifies itself if you want to evaluate the softness of the fetus. However, if you are interested in the color of the pulp, then a small hole from the removed petiole is unlikely to help you – to determine the quality of the pulp by color, you need to remove more skin.
   
   
   • If you are trying to assess the quality of an avocado before purchasing it from a store or market, you should not use this method of determining the quality of the fruit. If you rip off the stalk and don’t buy the avocado, it will cause the fruit to spoil quickly. This is hardly fair to the sellers and potential buyers who come after you.
5. Cut avocado. If you’ve already bought an avocado and want to check its quality, simply cut open the fruit – this is the fastest and most reliable way to determine if an avocado has gone bad. The color of the avocado pulp should be light green. If the color of the pulp has turned brown or black, then such avocado should not be eaten. However, if you see only small individual brown spots in the flesh, the fruit is quite edible.^[6]
   
   
6. Savor the avocado. If you’ve carefully examined the pulp of an avocado but still doubt the quality of the fruit, it’s perfectly acceptable to taste the pulp. You should not choose the parts of the fruit that have turned brown – on the contrary, choose a piece of light green flesh and taste it. Ripe avocados have a creamy, not very pronounced or slightly sweet flavor. If you get a musty or rancid smell or taste, the avocado has gone bad.
   
   

[править]Keep Your Avocado Fresh

1. To prevent overripe avocados, they need to be stored properly. If you’ve bought a ripe avocado but aren’t planning on eating it right away, store it in the refrigerator. A ripe, uncut avocado can be left at room temperature for three to four days, and it won’t go bad in seven to ten days in the refrigerator.^[7]
   
2. A cut avocado can also be stored for several days. To do this, cut avocados must be wrapped with cling film or placed in an airtight container. This will keep the avocado fresh for two to three days.^[8] To keep the avocado pulp from darkening longer, you can sprinkle lemon or lime juice on its surface. The acid found in citrus juice will help prevent exposure to oxygen and keep the avocado flesh green longer.
   
   
   • If the surface of a cut avocado has turned brown, don’t be too quick to throw the fruit away. Take a spoon or other cutlery and carefully remove the dark layer – under it will be a light green pulp.
3. To preserve leftover avocados, you can freeze the flesh. Mash the pulp to make a puree, add a little lemon juice, mix well and store in a container with a tight-fitting lid. This puree can be stored in the freezer for up to four months.^[9]
   

[править]council

• Avocados are picked from the tree when they are not ripe. If you bought an unripe avocado, leave it at room temperature for four to five days and the avocado will ripen.^[10]

[править]Warning

• Avocados release ethylene, a gas that speeds up the ripening of the fruit. If you store avocados in a covered container or near other ethylene-producing fruits (such as bananas, apples, or peaches), they will ripen faster.^[11]

[править]sources say