Is It Safe To Eat Spotty Fruits And Vegetables? What You Need To Know (2024)
Many of us skimp on the spotty fruits and vegetables at the grocery store for aesthetic reasons. The spots and mushy patches on produce makes us wonder how fresh they are, and most importantly, how safe they are to consume. Host Elizabeth Brauer of TED-Ed's latest video, "Are spotty fruits and vegetables safe to eat?”, suggests the stigma against blemished produce should be erased — they're not harmful after all.
In 2010, 30 billion dollars worth of fruits and vegetables were wasted by American retailers and shoppers because of its funky-looking texture and perceived spoilage. However, Brauer reassures us pathogens that affect food often don't have the same ill effects on humans. So, what are these blemishes on our produce anyways?
These spots are evidence of a battle between plants and microbes. Similar to humans, plants coexist with billions of fungi and bacteria. Some of these microbes are beneficial to the plant, suppressing disease and helping it extract nutrients. Others are pathogens that continue to live off of produce even as it sits in a store display or in our refrigerator. Most of these pathogens are never bad for us.
These microbes can reach plants in a number of ways, such as getting splashed onto them during watering or fertilization. Under the right conditions, they grow into large enough colonies to attack the waxy outer layers of fruit or leaves. Their target is the delicious sugars and nutrients inside.
They often form spots, draining the nutrients and color from the fruit's cells, making that yellow halo seen in tomatoes. They next move outward, leaving a black spot of dead cells; each spot possibly contains hundreds of thousands of microbes. This is actually caused by a combination of the microbial attack and the host's defense mechanisms.
Meanwhile, when it comes to mushy blemishes, microbes usually attack the fruit after it has detached from the plant. If the plant is wounded during transport, necrotic fungi can infiltrate through the wound, kill the cells and absorb their nutrients, leaving our food looking mushy or brown. These spots can taste pretty bad, since we're eating dead and decomposing tissue.
Usually, we can salvage the rest of the fruit by cutting off the mushy parts and eating the others.
Now, microbes that can make us sick like E.coli and salmonella can be on veggies too. Unlike plant pathogens, they don’t typically cause spots, and instead just hang out invisibly on the surface.
Therefore, it's important to look past the appearance of a fruit or vegetable, and rinse thoroughly to avoid contamination.
Now, microbes that can make us sick like E.coli and salmonella can be on veggies too. Unlike plant pathogens, they don't typically cause spots, and instead just hang out invisibly on the surface. Therefore, it's important to look past the appearance of a fruit or vegetable, and rinse thoroughly to avoid contamination.
Sometimes, raw fruits and vegetables contain harmful germs that can make you and your family sick, such as Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria. CDC estimates that germs on fresh produce cause a large percentage of foodborne illnesses in the United States. The safest produce to eat is cooked; the next safest is washed.
Fully rotten produce will be slimy to the touch, heavily wrinkled, paler than its ripe color (yellow if previously green), sometimes moldy, and often accompanied by a foul smell, says Ahern. If you spot any of these common signs, your food is no longer safe (or tasty) to eat.
Nutritional deficiencies: Fruitarians frequently have low levels of vitamin B12, calcium, vitamin D, iodine and omega-3 fatty acids, which can lead to anemia, tiredness, lethargy and immune system dysfunction. Low calcium can also cause osteoporosis.
Lenticel. These appear as small, freckle-like dots. While they don't impact grape safety, some people may consider them a defect because they affect the appearance of the grapes.
These spots are typically a sign that the banana is ripening, and they develop as the natural sugars in the fruit concentrate. In fact, bananas with brown spots tend to be sweeter and have a softer texture, making them ideal for eating or using in recipes like banana bread or smoothies.
While Listeria is killed by pasteurization and cooking, pregnant women and at-risk consumers can reduce their risk for listeriosis by eating only raw vegetables that are thoroughly washed.
“Apples with bruises are perfectly safe to consume—in fact, I encourage eating them rather than throwing them away, which causes unnecessary food waste,” Alibrandi says.
Storing vegetables the right way will keep them fresh and safe to eat. Some vegetables and fruit need to be stored in the refrigerator, others need to ripen before being placed in the refrigerator, and others are best stored at room temperature or in a cool dry place.
Black spot may develop in fruit when they begin to ripen and in leaves when conditions favour disease development. The main source of infection is spore masses produced on old, undecomposed leaves and shrivelled fruit. The spores are spread by rain splash, by overhead irrigation and on the hands of pickers.
Strawberries should not be a source of fear, but when it comes to mold on these delicate fruits, be sure to err on the side of caution. Quickly remove and discard any berries that are moldy or are touching moldy berries, wash the rest well, and then dry them before storing them to prevent new mold.
The black spots are probably sooty blotch or flyspeck. Sooty blotch and flyspeck are two different fungal diseases that often occur together on apples. Sooty blotch appears as dark brown to black, ½ inch or larger smudges on the surface of the apple. Flyspeck produces clusters of shiny, round, black dots.
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