'I kept a cut avocado perfectly green for 10 days with clever storage hack'

10 February 2023 , 12:41

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There was one outright winner to the test (stock photo) (Image: Getty Images)

Avocados can be a tricky food to keep fresh for a long time. They can spoil easily and can turn into a brown, mushy mess which leaves you with just one option which is to throw them away.

That's why storing them properly is so important as you want them to stay firm enough for you to enjoy in a salad or on some toast with a fried egg.

But there are many different ways you can store them - which makes it really difficult to know what is the best way as you want to keep them as fresh as possible.

A reporter has tested out some of the best storage methods (stock photo) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Thankfully, a reporter from The Express has put the different storage methods to the test to find which is the most effective at keeping your avocados fresh.

Rebecca Miller purchased a four-pack of Asda’s Just Essentials avocados on January 14 and placed them into the fridge as soon as she got home and below she explains what she thought of the different storage methods.

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Rebecca explained that on January 26, she took two avocados out of the packet and placed them into a fruit bowl - the avocados were still firm as the fridge had slowed the ripening process.

The bowl with two avocados in was sat next to another fruit bowl on the kitchen table, which contained bananas - a fruit that gives off ethylene gas, causing fruit to ripen quicker.

By January 30, the avocados were perfectly ripe and she cut them in half, before storing each half differently in the fridge on the same shelf. After 10 days, there was only one successful food storage hack for keeping avocados perfectly green.

Here is what Rebecca found from trying the different storage methods.

Zip-lock bag

Day 1 - Half an avocado, with the stone still in the middle was placed inside a zip lock bag and into the fridge.
Day 2 - The flesh had turned brown already.
Day 3/4 - The flesh was still brown.
Day 5 - The flesh now had visible signs of white mould appearing. This half an avocado was thrown into the bin.

Cling film

Day 1 - Half an avocado with no stone was wrapped in cling film and placed into the fridge.
Day 2 - Small areas of the flesh showed signs of browning.
Day 3/4 - The flesh had browned further.
Day 5 - The top layer of the flesh was brown but edible.

Avocado container

Day 1 - Half an avocado with no stone, placed into an avocado container and then into the fridge.
Day 2 - The flesh had small areas of browning.
Day 3/4 - The flesh had browned further.
Day 5 - The top layer of the flesh was brown but edible.

Lemon juice seems to be the most effective way of keeping it fresh (stock photo) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Lemon juice and a sealed plastic pot

Day 1 - Half an avocado with no stone, doused in lemon juice and placed into a sealed container and then into the fridge.
Day 2 - The flesh was perfectly green.
Day 3/4 - The flesh was still green.
Day 5 - The flesh was still green.
Day 7 - The flesh was still green but slight browning on the inside where the stone had originally been. This is probably because the lemon juice in the plastic pot was unable to get into this area.
Day 10 - The majority of the flesh was still green, but where the stone had been was now brown as there was no lemon juice left in this area.

The result

From purchasing the avocados to ripening and prolonging its shelf life after being cut, an avocado can be kept for three weeks and four days (minimum), if stored in the fridge as soon as you get home, and then doused in lemon juice and placed into a sealed plastic container in the fridge.

To ensure all areas of the avocado don’t turn brown, Rebecca said she could’ve added more lemon juice to the inside area where the stone originally was.

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As for why lemon juice works so successfully at stopping an avocado from turning brown, the acidic properties in lemons react with oxygen first, before it reacts with the avocado.

Freddie Bennett