Avocados stay fresh for 1 week longer with simple storage method — won’t go brown or hard
A perfectly ripe avocado in the supermarket is a rare find, which means shoppers often have to preserve or ripen them at home.
Avocados' creamy texture, rich flavour, and nutritional benefits make them so popular in cuisine worldwide, but they can be surprisingly fickle when it comes to storage. Some avocados stubbornly refuse to soften even days after being picked from the supermarket shelf, while others ripen at speed, ending up mushy and brown. The unpredictability stems from the ripening process. Like bananas, avocados produce ethylene gas, which promotes ripening.
Once avocados reach their peak, that same gas accelerates spoilage. The short window between perfect ripeness and overripe disappointment is challenging to navigate. Fortunately, there's a safe and effective way to keep the fruit at its peak for a whole week.
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Delicious avocados begin with careful selection at the supermarket or green grocers. Food experts at Serious Eats note that appearance isn't the best thing to go on when picking the perfect fruit.
Touch is the "better" way to determine the texture of your avocado: Use your fingers to gently press on the avocado near the stem.
You're looking for a slight tenderness. If it's very firm, the fruit is not ripe, and if it's too tender, the avocado is likely already past its prime. If you're unsure, pick a fruit that's firmer than soft at the tip, then ripen it at home.
The Serious Eats team said: "The best way to guarantee perfect avocados for a Sunday night game? Buy them the Monday before, ripen them at room temperature in a brown paper bag and refrigerate them as soon as they soften."
Should you wash avocados?
The tough, fibrous skin on avocados is safe to eat, but many prefer to discard it and only eat the flesh. Nonetheless, it's still worth washing to extend the shelf life of fruit.
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But it's not as simple as dunking them in water, despite what many social media hacks suggest.
Amy Lynn Cross, a cook and founder of The Cross Legacy, said: "These tips show people storing whole and halved avocados in water to keep them fresh longer. It has been all over social media. In reality, it could be making you sick."
The cooking expert shared her "secret elixir" for washing avocados: cool water and five per cent distilled white vinegar.
Washing avocados and other fruits in a vinegar solution kills bacteria or contamination on the skin, helping extend their shelf life.
How to store avocados
Start by filling a bowl with cold water and 60ml of white vinegar. Set a timer for exactly two minutes, then add the avocados for the duration of the timer.
Once the time is up, rinse off the vinegar solution with tap water and then allow the avocados to sit and air dry.
Ensure the fruit is completely dry before storing it; otherwise, it can risk bacterial and mould growth.
Store unripe fruit in a paper bag to ripen, then place it in the fridge when the stem tip is tender. To avoid overripening, it is best to check the tenderness of the fruit daily while it's in the bag.
Serious Eats said: "Once ripened, an avocado will start to produce brown spots and streaks within about two days if left at room temperature. However, refrigerating a ripened avocado can increase that window up to around five days."
It is not recommended to keep avocados in the fridge for more than a week; if left too long, they will begin to show signs of browning.
