Hanging with the wrong crowd, when good fruit goes bad.

We have all heard the term, "One bad apple spoils the rest." but we do not often think where else that might apply. The truth is everywhere, an entire batch can very easily be destroyed by one baddie. One thing to consider is the environment it was in before you got it. if you see a lot of rotten fruit around a few bits of good, chances are the good looking fruit was shipped with the bad and is already on it's way there. 


So how do you avoid this? Easy, mind where you shop. If you buy your produce from a place that obviously has good standards you may never have to worry about digging for the good stuff. So how do you tell? Watch that fruit like it's your first born! If you have fruit quickly spoiling after 1 or 2 days, chances are that fruit was rotten when you bought it. Some grocery stores keep fruit cold to make it look fresh when it is not. This may seem like an accident but in so many cases it isn't. 


Ever Seen a grocer switching out fruit? If he is taking his time and checking the food, that is one of the good guys. Never trust a place where the employees let brown or mashed product be sold. A store that is willing to sell rotting produce will cut corners anywhere, it's that simple. 


So how do we tell good produce from bad? Color, texture and smell, every piece of produce use these identifiers to let you know where it is in life. Many fruits do not continue to ripen after being harvested and should not be bought if they "need time to ripen". 

Fruits That Don't Ripen
Cantaloupe
Cherries
Citrus (orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit)
Cucumbers
Grapes
Pineapples
Pomegranates
Soft berries (blackberries, raspberries, strawberries)
Watermelons

Fruits That Do Ripen
Apples
Apricots
Avocados
Bananas
Blueberries
Figs
Guava
Honeydew melons
Kiwis
Mangoes
Muskmelons (aka cantaloupes)
Nectarines
Papayas
Passion fruits
Peaches
Pears
Persimmons
Plantains
Plums
Quince
Tomatoes

Other variables come in to play when trying to tell if something is indeed ripe or rotten. If you pick up an avocado and it's ice cold, leave it be. It has been recently chilled and you will not be able to tell if it is is good shape or not until it is at room temp. If a cantaloupe a pineapple or a strawberry doesn't smell sweet than it was picked too soon and will never reach it's full potential for sweetness. Fruits like strawberries and grapes are best eaten day of as they begin to spoil the second they are picked. Strawberries are prone to mold because they hold and secrete moisture so freeze them or eat them within a day or two. 

The moral of the story is you have to squeeze, sniff and eyeball that produce until you are satisfied. The same rules apply for both fruits and veggies. Smell, firmness and color are the keys to healthy produce and a healthy you.