Fruit · Food safety
Orange with brown or black areas inside: when to throw it away
Dark internal areas can come from bruising, chilling injury or decay. If the tissue is soft, wet, off-smelling, moldy or extensive, discard the orange.
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Fruit
Fruit ripeness, seasonality, storage, safety, nutrition and practical signs of quality.
Fruit · Food safety
Soft, wet strawberries with no mold: when can you eat them?
A slightly soft strawberry may simply be ripe or bruised. Water-soaked flesh, slime, leaking juice or a fermented smell are spoilage signs even before fuzzy mold appears.
Fruit · Food safety
Wrinkled blueberries: when are they still good?
Blueberries wrinkle as they lose water. If they remain dry, intact, mold-free, non-slimy and normal-smelling, shriveling usually affects quality before safety.
Fruit · Food safety
Grapes falling off the stem easily: what it says about freshness
Grapes detach more easily as their small stems dry and age. It signals declining freshness, but loose berries can still be good if they remain firm, dry and sound.
Fruit · Food safety
Mealy or woolly peach: why it loses its texture
A mealy or woolly peach can result from internal chilling injury during storage. It is a quality disorder that is different from mold, fermentation, or active rot.
Fruit · Food safety
Strawberries with white or green areas near the stem: ripeness or a problem?
A smooth white or green band near the cap usually reflects uneven ripening. Fuzz, water-soaked tissue, off odor or collapse point instead toward deterioration.
Fruit · Food safety
Wrinkled grapes: when are they still safe to eat?
Wrinkling usually starts as grapes lose water. If the berries remain dry, intact, mold-free and normal-smelling, mild shriveling is mainly a quality change.
Fruit · Food safety
White coating on grapes: what it is and how to tell it from mold
The pale, even coating on many grapes is natural wax called bloom. Mold is more likely to form irregular fuzzy patches on damaged, soft or wet berries.
Fruit · Cooking & food science
Why pineapple can make your tongue hurt, and how to prevent it
Fresh pineapple can sting because it is acidic and contains bromelain, a protein-digesting enzyme. Heat inactivates the enzyme, while smaller portions reduce exposure.
Fruit · Nutrition concepts
Is coconut a fruit, a nut, or a seed?
A coconut is botanically a drupe, a type of fruit. It contains one large seed, while in cooking it is often grouped with nuts because of how the flesh is used.
Fruit · Comparisons
Mandarin vs clementine: how to tell them apart and what changes
A clementine is a type of mandarin. Clementines are usually small, sweet, easy to peel, and low in seeds, while “mandarin” covers a much broader group of citrus.
Fruit · Nutrition & composition
Can you eat kiwi skin? Here is what it adds
Yes. Kiwi skin is edible when the fruit is sound and washed under running water. Leaving it on adds fiber and lets you eat more of the fruit, though peeling is also perfectly fine.