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Wednesday 10 April 2019

When Is An Avocado Bad : Ways To Tell

Marsha McCulloch, MS, RD writes:
"An avocado doesn’t start to ripen until picked from the tree, but the process happens rather quickly afterward. Once ripe, you have a narrow window of time — generally a few days — before the fruit starts to spoil. You may wonder how to determine when an avocado is rotten and no longer good to eat... well here are five signs that an avocado has gone bad.



Overly soft with dented skin 
If you gently squeeze an avocado in the palm of your hand and it retains a large indentation where you pressed, the fruit is overripe and likely spoiled.

Blackened skin 
Hass, the most common avocado variety, develops blackened skin when overripe and rotten. However, other varieties retain their green colour when overripe.

Dark, stringy flesh 
The flesh of a rotten avocado has dark spots and a stringy texture that tastes bad. However, an isolated discoloured area may be due to bruising.

Off flavour or odour
A sour taste or smell, as well as a rancid aroma and chemical flavour, mean that an avocado is spoiled and you should discard it.

Mold
Mold is a clear sign that an avocado is spoiled. You should discard the entire fruit, as the mold can spread through the soft flesh but may not be entirely visible.

Safety of overripe avocados
If they taste fine, you can eat overripe avocados, but be sure to avoid spoiled ones. The more an avocado has deteriorated, the more likely it will be rancid or moldy — both of which could potentially make you sick.

The bottom line
Avocados are rotten if they’re mushy when squeezed, brown or moldy inside, and have developed rancidity or a sour smell. You may be able to salvage part of the fruit if it’s just starting to brown inside and the rest of the fruit looks, smells, and tastes fine. Inspect avocados carefully at the store and monitor them closely at home so you can avoid the need to discard them."

The above words are just a snippet from Marsha's post, please read it in full here

You may also like to read the post 'Reasons To Love Avocados' see it here

Dear reader, you will find a variety of articles and recipe ideas within this blog, and not all may be suitable for you. If you may have any food allergies, or underlying health issues please take these into account. If you are a diabetic and not sure how certain foods may affect your blood sugars, test is best, i.e. use your meter.

All the best Jan

31 comments:

Tom said...

...something that I've never had.

Bill said...

Good info to know. I love avocados and have gotten a few that were off inside. We bought them and were going to eat them a couple of days later but had to throw them away. Thanks for sharing.

Martha said...

Thank you for this very handy info!

JFM said...

Good to know info...thank you Jan 💮

CJ Kennedy said...

That's good to know.

William Kendall said...

I've never had them either.

Teresa said...

El aguacate me encanta. Besitos.

Anonymous said...

Great info! I’m a strange one, I do not like avocado lol,,, I know lol, strange but it means more for those that like them, Your info did not go to waste with me , I do prepare them for my family 😊

This N That said...

Ewww..nice to be reminded what to look for..

My name is Erika. said...

I love avocado. I wonder why the ones they sell here are hard as rocks when you buy them. This is interesting because sometimes while you wait for them to ripen they go bad. Happy Wednesday. Hugs-Erika

Miss Val's Creations said...

We love avocados so much that they just don't go bad in our house!

Christine said...

I am getting better at the touch and feel of it.

Chris Lally said...

Good to know, Jan. Thanks!

Sandra said...

Just the idea of moldy avocado has me wrinkling my nose:)
You always have such informative posts. Much appreciated.

Susan Kane said...

We live near Fallbrook, CA, which is the avocado capital of the world. Yup. There is an annual
Avocado Festival and it is great.

Those tips are awesome.

Zaa said...

I love Avocados ... Thank you for all this interesting post. I saw frozen avocados in Costco and decided to try it .... funnily enough, they are great for my morning smoothie... While I do try to use them before they over-ripen... sometimes it hard so I this freezing technique works quite well if you have to buy a full bag...I learned so much from this post...THANK YOU ...Hugs

Kay G. said...

When is an avocado bad?

It is always bad! HA! I don't care for them. Don't understand why everyone raves about them! :-)

Jeanie said...

I love avocados and have been burned by getting one either not ready or ready last week! Thanks for this!

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Great advice. Mine usually shrivel and turn "prunish" when they get too old and I forget them in my fridge.

Margaret D said...

Interesting.
One thing we don't eat are these - can't stand them.

Valerie-Jael said...

Thanks for the information! Valerie

Elephant's Child said...

We had a cat who knew. He was very partial to avocado, but it had to be perfect or he turned his nose up and walked away.

Iris Flavia said...

It´s so hard to get a good avocado here! Funnily it´s ALDI that sometimes has good ones.

Sami said...

I love avocados, but sometimes I buy too many, and then one or two will go bad which annoys me!

Francisco Manuel Carrajola Oliveira said...

Muito obrigado por estas dicas.
Um abraço e continuação de uma boa semana.

Andarilhar
Dedais de Francisco e Idalisa
O prazer dos livros

mxtodis123 said...

I love avocados, but can't eat too much of them. They get my tummy going. I do love to put them in my soups, especially my Mexican bean soup. Oh, so yummy.

Lorrie said...

We love avocados. When we lived in South America, we had a couple of avocado trees and enjoyed them in so many ways. It's sometimes tricky to buy them at the right stage here where they are imported. If they are very shiny, they are very unripe and seem to lose their shine as they ripen.

Snowbird said...

Mine always seem to suddenly go off. I love them on toast.xxx

Out on the prairie said...

Love eating them, got a sack today for $.38 a piece.

carol l mckenna said...

Great info on the avocado ~

Happy Days to you,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)

Bob Bushell said...

Nice and juicey.