What you didn't know about your supermarket apples
Shoppers heading to the supermarket to stock up on fruit might be surprised to find out just how fresh their apples are.
Apples are picked in autumn but the demand for them is year-round, so they’re sent to sleep in cool-stores to put ripening on hold.
Apple aficionado Dr Stephen Morris, from research and consulting company Postharvest Fresh, tested a range of apples from Aldi, Woolworths, Coles and an independent grocery shop to analyse their quality and age.
“Sometimes in Australia you can buy an apple that’s almost 12 months old,” Dr Morris said.
The freshest apples tested were Pink Ladies but they were still seven months old.
The Granny Smiths were eight months old and the Gala apples nine months old.
But Dr Morris says that is not necessarily a concern.
“A nine-month-old apple, if it’s been stored correctly and harvested correctly, can be a nice eating experience,” Dr Morris said.
After dicing, juicing and puncturing fruit to measure appearance, firmness and taste, the winning results were in.
“The best quality fruit from the point of view of flavour and eating quality was from the independent,” Dr Morris said.
“The best fruit from the point of view of surface quality and appearance was from Coles.”
Woolworths came in third and Aldi fourth.
The expert’s tip is consumers should store apples in their fridge’s crisper instead of the fruit bowl as they will last at least a week.
