The FDA recommends that avocados not be stored in water, as this can lead to the growth of bacteria such as Listeria monocytogenes, which can cause illness. It is still possible to refrigerate avocados without adding water. The original article is below.
Buying avocados is always a bit risky. The ripening intervals are irregular, and the ripening moment comes before you eat them. Of course, you can freeze them, but then the texture will change and they won’t necessarily be to your liking.
According to a recent Facebook post, it is possible to delay the ripening of avocados and keep them fresh for a month at most. It takes a lot of time to use up avocados bought temporarily at the farmer’s market because of the great deals on bulk purchases.
How to Slowly Age Avocados
As this Facebook user posted, “Avocados always stay in good shape if you soak them in water and keep them in the fridge. This avocado was left here for two whole weeks while the control on the counter rotted.”
As you can see in the photo, the whole avocado could be soaked in water and kept in the refrigerator for several weeks. As The Kitchn reported in a recent article, this hack was confirmed as legitimate by several people on Twitter, including writer Ashley Ford.
Another article in Southern Living further verified the hack, looking at how it compares to storing avocados on the counter or in the refrigerator without soaking them in water. According to the article, soaking avocados in water and placing them in the refrigerator clearly extends their ripening time. Avocados left on the counter went bad the fastest, avocados kept dry in the refrigerator took longer, and avocados kept in water in the refrigerator stayed fresh the longest.
How to ripen avocados faster
The drawback to purchasing multiple avocados is that you cannot control how quickly they ripen. Keeping them in water in the refrigerator will slow down the ripening process, but sometimes it is better to speed it up a bit, especially if you want to eat them slowly over several weeks.
If you want to use avocados stored in the refrigerator in bulk in a few days, remove them from the refrigerator and place them in a paper bag with a piece of fruit to speed the ripening process. The fruit will produce ethylene gas, which will allow the avocados to ripen faster.
How to Store Avocados
Ripe avocados mashed, roasted and covered in dressing are a godsend! Here’s my experience. It’s easy to eat too much of such a delicious food. The problem with buying too many avocados, however, is that you end up with too many avocados and not enough time to eat them deliciously.
Why do avocados turn brown?
Unless you are one of those people who gobble up avocados as soon as you get home from the store, you have probably noticed that leftover avocados quickly turn from green to brown. The slightly browned avocado still has the same bright, dark green color and flavor of a freshly cut avocado, but it is harder to eat when a spoonful of brown guacamole is piled on top of tortilla chips. The brown color is simply oxidation, which is what happens to other products such as apples and potatoes when exposed to oxygen. All three are transformed almost instantly, but apples and potatoes can be spared from oxidation by soaking in water. Unfortunately, this method does not solve the problem in the case of avocados, but there are ways to slow the progression.
