Can I Eat This? Avocado Edition

September 19, 2024 5:59 AM

Y'know how sometimes the inside of an avocado is that icky gray-green color?

As I'm the lone avocado lover in the house, I on occasion treat myself to one for my lunches. Lately, though, the flesh of the avocados that I've gotten from my nearby market have been close to half that icky oxidized gray-green color. Not an appetizing thing to find.

FWIW, I'm not buying soft fruits. I'm getting fairly firm avocados and letting them sit for a day or so. I always check to make sure there are no obvious dents/cuts/blemishes on the skin, and that the stem thing is intact.

The internet seems to be all over the place when it comes to if this is normal/abnormal/edible/inedible/etc. It's certainly unsightly, and doesn't result in an appetizing looking guac.

What say you, MeFi avocado fans? Have you had this same issue on the regular? Do you just shrug and go ahead and whip-up some off-color guac? Is the flavor acceptable to you? I'm getting tired of tossing them out.

Thanks.

posted by Thorzdad to Food & Drink (9 answers total)

Best answer: Yuck no. That happened a couple times in the past month to me. I chalked it up to buying the wrong avocados (like you I bought them firm and green and then ripened them, but they didn't have the "shine" that I look for). But I wonder now if they counter-ripened at too high a temperature. It's been 90 regularly in the midwest and maybe if they ripen too hot they just go grey. I wonder if they would have fared better ripening in the fridge.
posted by pjenks at 6:10 AM on September 19

Best answer: I've had it happen a few times. pjenks might be onto something with the temperatures.

I don't trust them in terms of being safe, so the times it's happened I've thrown them out. Now and then there's enough "good" green that I can salvage enough to use.
posted by Dolley at 6:15 AM on September 19

Best answer: It's not just discoloration - it's dead fruit tissue, whether that's been caused by bruising or some other issue with handling. It doesn't taste good, and I wouldn't eat it.

Here's a manual on avocado defects, with pictures, that might help you identify what specifically is wrong with yours.

I do have these issues on and off. Whenever it happens I stop buying avocados from that store for a while. Both because they're not good, and also because I have Strong Feelings about the ways in which corporations have been gradually lowering our expectations around food quality in order to increase their profits. Fuck you, I'm not paying to carefully scoop out whatever meager bit of this avocado I can salvage.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 6:17 AM on September 19 [23 favorites]

Best answer: Not an appetizing thing to find.

It’s also not very tasty. Regardless if it’s edible you probably don’t want to eat it.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 6:39 AM on September 19 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Unless the whole fruit is riddled with bruising/discoloration, I scoop away the bad spots and eat the rest.
posted by coffeecat at 7:17 AM on September 19 [6 favorites]

Best answer: I've tried to eat it, because avocados are expensive, and couldn't. Nothing bad happened to me, it was just a really gross flavor and texture that completely defeated the point of eating avocado.
posted by teremala at 8:09 AM on September 19 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks all! Glad to know my gut was right about not eating it.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:33 AM on September 19

A friend told me it was "like a banana going brown". So I tend to treat those gray/brownish avocado spots the same way as bruises on bananas: safe to eat, but not necessarily pleasant. (I often eat them if it seems like too much trouble to cut them out.)

The black spots that form just under the peel I always cut out, though I'll eat the rest of the fruit if it looks sound.
posted by Pallas Athena at 10:07 AM on September 19

If a little bit of the gray stuff gets on the good stuff while mashing then it's no big deal, but the gray stuff tastes bad so you wouldn't want to eat more than trace amounts
posted by Jacqueline at 6:34 PM on September 19