These Are The 5 Fresh Fruits That Spoil The Fastest

The rows of citrus, piles of apples, and stacks of berries in grocery store produce sections or farmers' market stalls are enticing. So you fill your basket or bag with a colorful array of fresh fruit, carefully selected from those stands — only to find that it's all gone bad after just a few days. Dreams of smoothies? Gone. Plans for salads and yogurt bowls? Discarded. Visions of healthy habits? Crushed. And it's an all too familiar produce predicament. In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture believes that around 19% of the fruit supply in the U.S. is wasted by consumers.

As frustrating (and wasteful) as spoilage can be, it's a natural process, and there are a lot of factors that contribute. Microorganisms, like bacteria and yeast, can cause bad smells and tastes, and the oxygen in the air can cause discoloration when it meets the fruit's enzymes. The naturally occurring enzymes in fruit are responsible for ripening — but also overripening. Many fruits emit the chemical ethylene when they ripen and others have been sprayed with ethylene to help them ripen more quickly. These emissions will cause even the fruits around the ethylene producers to ripen, then spoil, faster.

Even with all these factors working against them, some fruits, like apples and citrus, have a relatively long shelf life. Others, though, seem to spoil if you look at them wrong — but there are still ways to keep this delicate produce fresh for longer and store your fresh produce the right way.

Soft berries, like blackberries and blueberries, are particularly prone to spoilage because of their high moisture content and porosity. As a result of the moisture in the air and the mold spores that are nearly always already present on their surface, berries will typically only stay fresh at room temperature for about 24 hours.

There are a few steps to take, though, toward longer-lasting freshness. Instead of just rinsing them off, give the berries a quick bath in a solution of one part vinegar and three parts water to kill mold spores. Then store them in the refrigerator in a vented container that allows airflow, like this OXO storage container — just make sure to avoid the fridge's cold spots, which can cause damage to the delicate fruit. And don't forget to remove moldy berries from the bunch whenever you see them, as they'll spread their spores to the rest (but it is still safe to eat the remaining berries).

Bananas can turn from green to yellow to brown in a flash — so much so that bananas are harvested long before they're actually ripe, then kept in cold storage to stop them from ripening before they're sold. As the fruit matures, enzymes turn starch into sugar, making the banana sweeter, and break down the pectin, making the banana softer. Once the fruit is ripe, it will go bad within a few days.

However, bananas aren't just quick to rot themselves — they'll also take other fruits with them. The banana produces a large amount of ethylene gas as it ripens, and the emission speeds up ripening in surrounding fruits and vegetables. That goes for the reverse as well. Other high-ethylene fruits like apples and pears will cause bananas to spoil more quickly. So it's best to keep them isolated.

The best temperature at which to store bananas is 54 degrees Fahrenheit. So although you can use the refrigerator to slow ripening for many fruits, the cold air will stop bananas from ripening altogether. If the banana is unripe when it goes in the fridge, the interior will stay unripe but the peel will become black — and it may not be able to start ripening again when you remove it. Instead, a banana's ideal space is cool, dark, and out in the open air.

You might be thinking that strawberries should have been covered with the other berries — but strawberries aren't actually berries at all. Referred to as a pseudocarp or "false fruit," the strawberry is made up of many fruits called achenes, which are generally misidentified as its seeds. Even so, it shares a delicate nature with true berries and tends to spoil within a couple of days.

Strawberries will also benefit from a vinegar and water rinse. Just don't forget to dry them once you're done and put them in a container with good airflow, such as one of Rubbermaid's produce saver containers. You should also remove any strawberries that are beginning to go bad. The fruits don't like to be crowded or crushed as they're stored, so it helps to set them on a paper towel in a wide container. The paper towel will absorb extra moisture, which can lead to bacteria.

You've probably heard that tomatoes shouldn't be stored in the refrigerator, but when your deliciously plump and ripe fruits only last on the counter for less than a week, it can be tempting to pop them in the fridge to extend their shelf life. But that can actually be done if you do it the right way. The cold of the refrigerator will prevent the tomato from rotting quickly since it halts the ripening process, but the chilly temperature is also not great for the fruit. The tomato can lose its flavor and color, and become mealy.

But that "no refrigerator" rule isn't quite as universal as it sounds. If a tomato is unripe when it is set inside, ripening is stopped and so is the flavor that comes with the maturity; the fruit will likely not regain its delicious taste and ripeness once you remove it from the cold. If you've let the tomatoes reach their ripeness peak, though, the refrigerator isn't so bad. At that point, they've already developed the flavor and color, so you can keep them in the fridge for up to two weeks (although no more than three days is typically best). So hold them at room temperature until they're ripe, then refrigerate — and let them come back to room temperature before you dig in.

Avocados (which are technically classified as berries) are particularly notorious for their quick-spoiling properties. A ripe avocado has to be enjoyed within just a day or two, and an unripe avocado will only give you a lead time of around four or five days, if kept at room temperature. The refrigerator will help extend your avocados' lifespan by a few more days, as the cold air slows the ripening process. An airtight storage container or the crisper drawer is the best spot to place these fruits. Ripe avocados can also be frozen for around four months, but the texture will be affected — so this method is best used when the avocado is mixed in a recipe.

The idea of storing avocados in water to prolong their life gained traction on the internet for a while, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration shared a warning against the method. In some cases, bacteria like Listeria monocytogenes will thrive in the water and can penetrate the avocado's skin — leading to foodborne illness.