Why Some Fruits Won’t Ripen On Your Counter

Trying to ripen some fruits on your kitchen counter is totally fruitless - here's why.
LEARN MORE
**************
To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
climacteric: a pattern of fruit ripening associated with increased ethylene production and a rise in cellular respiration (meaning that the fruit can ripen off the plant)
nonclimacteric: ripening that is not characterized by a peak of ethylene production or respiration (and must happen on the plant)
SUPPORT MINUTEEARTH
**************************
If you like what we do, you can help us!:
- Become our patron: / minuteearth
- Share this video with your friends and family
- Leave us a comment (we read them!)
CREDITS
*********
Kate Yoshida | Script Writer, Narrator and Director
Adam Thompson | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation
Nathaniel Schroeder | Music
MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC
neptunestudios.info
OUR STAFF
************
Sarah Berman • Arcadi Garcia i Rius
David Goldenberg • Julián Gustavo Gómez
Melissa Hayes • Alex Reich • Henry Reich • Peter Reich
Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida
OTHER CREDITS
*****************
Footage by Kate Yoshida:
- Fruits on counter
- Pineapple cut
- Grocery store fruits
Cherry photo by Khoa Ma
unsplash.com/photos/Y2OD2mO3-AM
Orange photo by Adam Nieścioruk
unsplash.com/photos/ltn8ztC6kjk
Pineapple photo by Fernando Andrade
unsplash.com/photos/nAOZCYcLND8
Apple photo by Adam Thompson
Banana photo by Moritz Kindler
unsplash.com/photos/j-v3GVQ9lC8
Mango photo by Unsplash user triplemdesignz
unsplash.com/photos/jiaruS1hf6Q
OUR LINKS
************
KZbin | / minuteearth
TikTok | / minuteearth
Twitter | / minuteearth
Instagram | / minute_earth
Facebook | / minuteearth
Website | minuteearth.com
Apple Podcasts| podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
REFERENCES
**************
Cherian, S., Figueroa, C. R., and Nair, H. (2014). ‘Movers and shakers’ in the regulation of fruit ripening: a cross-dissection of climacteric versus non-climacteric fruit. J. Exp. Bot. 65, 4705-4722. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24994...
Fukano Y. & Tachiki Y. (2021). Evolutionary ecology of climacteric and non-climacteric fruits. Biology Letters 17 (9). royalsocietypublishing.org/do...
Leng, P., Yuan, B., & Guo, Y. (2014). The role of abscisic acid in fruit ripening and responses to abiotic stress. J. Exp. Bot. 65, 4577-4588. academic.oup.com/jxb/article/...
Lu, P. T. et al. (2018). Genome encode analyses reveal the basis of convergent evolution of fleshy fruit ripening. Nat. Plants 4, 784-791. www.nature.com/articles/s4147...
Paul V., Pandey R., & Srivastava G.C. (2012). The fading distinctions between classical patterns of ripening in climacteric and non-climacteric fruit and the ubiquity of ethylene - an overview. Journal of Food Science and Technology, 49:01-21. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23572...

[@MinuteEarth]

Thank you for supporting the fruit of our labor (talking science and making cringe-worthy puns). Want to become our Patreon or member on KZbin? Just visit www.patreon.com/MinuteEarth or click "JOIN". Pssst, in case you haven't heard it on the grapevine, we have a BOOK out now, "MinuteEarth Explains: How Did Whales Get So Big?". You can find it at minuteearth.com/books.

[@hejbuy]

Gleep

[@IELTSExpert1]

done , I visted

[@eSKAone-]

Imagine food had to be delivered to every single doorstep by combustion motors (or even electric ones) instead of us just walking or bicycling to the store where it's delivered to much more centralized. That couldn't be possibly have a good carbon footprint. Think about it.💟

[@kholozondi9904]

@@eSKAone- that entirely depends on your accessibility to supermarkets. In places like Japan, you can literally walk down the streets and many deliveries are made using bicycles due to the narrow residential roads. But there are still plenty of places around the world where the infrastructure was built around cars being the primary mode of transport, and subsequently usually the only one. Less you wish to walk along a highway. This is the route places like the continential US and UAE took. It's efficient for small populations but has scalled poorly with the huge ones we see today. Not too mention how the most densely populated US cities are near the coast, which introduces hills, hills, and hills galore :) Thus, I agree with Minute Earth's assessment given their version of the concrete jungle. For my home country, South Africa, services like these are already employed for communities that live far outward from the cities (tho these are mostly charity based). This saves literall tons of emmissions especially since most people can't afford anywhere near efficient cars. Then again, Hello Fresh isn't available in my country. I suspect for this very reason.

[@kholozondi9904]

@@eSKAone- Oh, and if I might add 1 more point my good sir: Individual people driving to the supermarket means that each car serves 1 person for however many meals. Where as with this model, 1 car serves dozens of people meal kits that effectively always contain multiple meals kits of multiple servings. Not only does this reduce the cars on the road, and thus emissions, but it also makes converting the transportation infrastructure to electric or hydrogen or whatever, much easier. Since a massive company only has to invest billions per millions of customers, as opposed to each individual having to take personal and financial actions. Granted, my final point is an idealized case but let me dream! :)

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

"That's why trying to ripen a pineapple in my kitchen was...fruitless" *slow claps*

[@lyrablack8621]

*joins in*

[@Toast_Drawz]

*Also Joins In*

[@jorge3234]

Joins the supreme leader

[@matta687]

starts slow wave while clapping

[@arunabhganodwale1022]

The supreme leader is my supreme servant. He follows me everywhere.

[@zpinn8242]

"Why aren't all fruits cordless?" sounds like the start of a Vsauce video

[@jem5636]

true

[@kungisans]

Sounds like something "Apple" is working on with their phones

[@hugonobody3352]

"Hey vsauce, michael here. Why are your fruits.... cordless? To answer that we must go to 1776 Independence Da-"

[@carlrodalegrado4104]

Why aren't fruits cordless? Or are they? (Vsauce theme starts*)

[@melvacaoyona-ollosa278]

No collabs

[@JonathanKayne]

The problem is that certain fruits also soften when they ripen so harvesters have to pick them early. This is one of the reasons that tomatoes that are fresh off the vine taste better than stuff at the store, among other things. (if they harvested the fruit at peak ripeness then it would crush itself during transport)

[@user-qy1ms1ot1g]

ah, if only we have the technology for modifying plants genes for making it last longer and be tasty... Oh stop, we have, but people banned GMO-potatoes which was tasty and strong at the same time :(

[@HaloWolf102]

Genetically Modified NOT to harm me. Wow, much bad.

[@JonathanKayne]

@@HaloWolf102 wtf are you talking about? Has nothing to do with my original comment

[@JamesTaylor-on9nz]

@@user-qy1ms1ot1g Oh no! So anyway...

[@HaloWolf102]

@@JonathanKayne What are you on about? Why are you replying to me?

[@semoemo1]

A general rule of thumb I learned studying fruit crops was "If it's starch based, it ripens off the plant. If it's acid (sour) based, it ripens on the plant". It seems the venn diagram supports this somewhat.

[@missnaomi613]

Thank you for this!

[@BelugaSennah]

The outlier would be the passion fruit i suppose?

[@semoemo1]

@@BelugaSennah I suppose so. I'm sure there's a bunch other I'm not aware of. Just a general, broad rule.

[@IvanIvanov-ug5dc]

I think that there is not a lot of starch in apples. But in this video was said that apples can ripens off the plant. By the way I am not sure about it. I know that tomatoes ripens rather good off the plant, and they are sour and not starchy.

[@semoemo1]

@@IvanIvanov-ug5dc apples do contain starch. It gets converted to simple sugars. There's a thing called an iodine test that dyes starch molecules.

[@iris-needs-more-history-books]

So basically,some plants need the wire while others use Plant Bluetooth

[@abhishekranjan1347]

Battery not bluetooth

[@ckv1985]

r/whoosh​@@abhishekranjan1347

[@themagmagamer6632]

Yea this is the quickest way of saying this

[@winsontam6334]

Whoa! No more waiting for blueberries to ripen!

[@FortuneZer0]

Who waits for blueberries to ripen? Its usualy chow down before they start to get moldy in a few hours.

[@missnaomi613]

Who waits? I can barely wait until I get home to start on them! Nummy!

[@stxnw]

dumbest thing i’ve seen today

[@Sciencenerd2704]

Tâm à?

[@runnethdown]

Why wait? They taste way better sour

[@Arikayx13]

Many peppers will ripen from ethylene gas exposure as well, which means if you want your jalapenos to stay green, they need to be kept away from other ripening fruit. Or if you want some tasty and less spicy red jalapenos, sit them next to fruits or other red peppers.

[@juliaf_]

Yes, but only if they've started changing colour. A fully unripe pepper will rarely ripen at all, and even if the colour changes, some peppers flavour is still unaffected. Store bought simply can't compare to home grown

[@sagetmaster4]

I've never noticed a difference in spiciness based on pepper ripeness. Internet says they get hotter as they ripen

[@Arikayx13]

@@juliaf_ Oh home grown is always better, but even when they’re fully green you can get jalapenos to start changing by placing a red pepper against their skin. In the past I’ve done timelapse of the color change of jalapenos and it’s possible to pick the point it starts to ripen by where I placed the ripe pepper.

[@ragnkja]

@@juliaf_ It does need to have reached a certain stage of maturation before it got picked in order to ripen after picking, so anything that was picked before it reached that stage will never ripen at all.

[@teathesilkwing7616]

Why not just paint them green? Smh

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

This is simply karma for stealing SpongeBob's home from the ocean

[@Ascend777]

sea* UNDER THE SEA!

[@joelhoon1707]

SPONGE BOB SQUARE PANTS! POROUS AND YELLOW AND ABSORBENT AS SEA(?)!

[@cool_bean4259]

true LOL

[@Adaginy]

A pro-tip for pears, based on having had a pear tree: A pear *on* the tree ripens from the inside out. A pear *off* the tree ripens from the outside in. So if you have a pear tree and pick a beautifully ripe fruit, you will find it overripe and rotten inside. And if you buy a beautifully ripe fruit at the grocery store, you might get the same thing. BUT if you buy/pick a hard pear, or a just baaarely soft at the tip pear, it can ripen on your counter (or in a bag with apples) and the middle will be fine.

[@uEffects123]

I just can't imagine how individually packaging every ingredient and shipping it to you individually could even theoretically be more sustainable than buying local, fresh and less packaged food that's only once delivered to the store for everyone to pick up with their bikes...

[@ragnkja]

I also imagine that it depends on whether their portion sizes are about the right size for you. If they’re significantly too large you obviously end up with awkward-sized leftovers (unless they’re exactly twice as large as necessary), and if they’re too small but more than half of what you need you need two portions but still end up with leftovers.

[@ichifish]

Yeah, especially since it's not like using a delivery service means you never go to the store. Minute Earth needs to show their research. I suspect there are a lot of distortions built into Hello Fresh's claim, like "if you drive to the store to buy only these ingredients and buy a whole jar of cumin to make the meal your footprint is higher."

[@MartinGrozdanov]

Why even talk about small sustainability differences of the packaging and the shipping while most of the order is red meat and dairy - two of the most unsustainable things you can pay for in a food order.

[@ragnkja]

@@MartinGrozdanov And _that_ is why my grandmother often buys pre-sliced cheese: the packages are smaller, so she’s able to eat it all before it goes bad.

[@nonec384]

@@MartinGrozdanov i have seen a few and they have some tiny plastic botles for something like vinager that can last or a lot of time it sounds more realistic for fresh that goes bad withing a week , but a weeking shoping in bulk still be better

[@alarcon99]

If you are wondering how to tell which pineapple is ready, try pulling on the innermost leaf. If it detaches easily then it’s good to go. 😊

[@nelumbonucifera7537]

That's pretty unreliable. Some of the best pineapples I've eaten had stuck leaves, and some of the worst had loose leaves. Smelling the stem end is a better test of quality. But it's mostly just a matter of whether your trust the supplier to have harvested them ripe.

[@AlbinoAxolotl]

@@nelumbonucifera7537 yep the smell test of the cut spot on the bottom stem is always the most reliable method for me! That and how nice and yellow it is, considering most pineapples here are straight up green.

[@okanko962]

That’s interesting. My pineapples do ripen by themselves, once green, they go gold-ish. My parents say it’s to do with the scent you can tell when it’s ready

[@ian3580]

They do go goldish, and soften a bit.....they're technically rotting, not ripening.

[@nicholasn.2883]

@@ian3580 Damn so I guess that applies to raspberries too

[@wilsonmpesha904]

They become really sweet as well.

[@YujiUedaFan]

Who told you and Minute Earth team that you needed to wait for pineapples to ripen? I've known since I was 8 that you don't need to wait.

[@Tatosgr]

Can we get that image at 3:12 as a wallpaper, poster, or something? I would love to have it in my kitchen.

[@marygracemcgrath]

That would be great!!^^^

[@TPS0]

Even a high-res downloadable pic would be _amazing_.… I came here just to request that.

[@brunoolas]

I usually buy pineapples by the bunch, normally of 3. I'm used to cutting one up to eat in a couple of days, while letting the others ripen more during the week. Would it be better then to cut them all straight away and store in the fridge, since they are not getting more ripe, to prevent them from getting nasty? Thank you for the video. Oh, and congratulations on the 10 years anniversary of the channel!

[@appa609]

just store the other two whole in the fridge. Cutting up introduces oxygen and allows for moisture loss.

[@brunoolas]

@@appa609Ok, thanks

[@bazoo513]

Re: mealkits - it would be interesting to see an episode comparing carbon footprint of meal kits compared to meals made from locally obtained ingredients. All this transport from afar makes me suspicious of their sustainability.

[@RobotShield]

Also include how many trips people made to ‘the store’ before and after getting bellow fresh.

[@ichifish]

This. Minute Earth needs to show their research on this one. I suspect there are a lot of distortions built into Hello Fresh's claim, like "if you drive to the store to buy only these ingredients and buy a whole jar of cumin to make the meal your footprint is higher."

[@bazoo513]

@@RobotShield Well, three bakeries, a butcher, a produce store and another produce stall and a small supermarket are all within five minutes walk from my home, with a large supermarket ten minutes away. A farmer's market with many produce stalls, a number of butchers, delis and cheese and fish mongers is four short tram stops away. There are also two good, reasonably priced restaurants (both deliver) and a number of cafes within the same five minute radius. No need to reach for my car keys.

[@RobotShield]

@@bazoo513 great! So if you got hello fresh it would be worse then. Basically if your number of trips in a car doesn’t change then hello fresh is worse. That includes 0 trips.

[@bazoo513]

@@RobotShield Exactly. But then "Hello Fresh" is meant for American suburbanites, not for denizens of dense European cities.

[@ekiratomi]

Thanks for last image 😱🙏🙏

[@blueberrychocolate4238]

The fruit is so cute! Also thanks for teaching me about how fruit ripens. I now know banana and apples ripen because they store up lots of starch that can be converted to sugars by ethylene.

[@eudofia]

The problem with grocery store fruits is that they pick them unripened. So that they can be transported over long distances without spoilage, and then they ripen the fruits artificially with ethelyne. In other words, most of the fruits you get at the grocery stores are not at their nutritional prime. Mangos are one the biggest culprit. If you have the opportunity to visit say any of the Caribbean islands, you'd be amazed by how delicious the fruits are, as they are picked ripe from the trees.

[@blueberrychocolate4238]

@@eudofia Thanks for telling me!

[@sorchaOtwo]

Store your pineapples upside down, standing on their leaves as ripening usually starts at the bottom. I've had pretty good luck ith this method, but check them often, like avocados, they're peek is short.

[@92Pyromaniac]

I'd love to learn more about the efficiencies of meal kits! Personally I remain skeptical.

[@TheRolexseller]

Why has almost every peach I’ve bought the past few years never gotten ripe ? Goes from hard to wrinkly

[@MinuteEarth]

Happens to me too! The thing is that a seed must reach maturity before ripening occurs in the fruit. So if a "cordless" (or "climacteric") fruit is picked before its seed is fully mature, it won't ever ripen!

[@MultiLeandrini]

@@MinuteEarth I think you meant non-climacteric

[@JWQweqOPDH]

@@MultiLeandrini No. They were correct in saying climacteric. Non-climacteric will never ripen after picking, but (as they were pointing out) even climacteric won't ever ripen *if* they're picked too soon.

[@ragnkja]

@@JWQweqOPDH Avocados are a particularly good example of this.

[@trashbug4843]

I see that fruit is just as confusing as coming up with a catchy title and thumbnail for this video 😂🤣😂

[@rawrimadino_]

That was the best Hello Fresh sponsor I’ve ever heard. I was wary of meal kits for that exact reason too!

[@ylhajee]

It still seems strange to me. Surely one fully loaded truck making one trip from a depot to a grocery store is less polluting than multiple trucks driving all over the place for deliveries? I get my groceries by bicycle so there's no pollution from there. The food waste can be a reason, but it's not that hard to use all the food you buy even if it isn't prepackaged in the ideal proportions. I don't mind people using services like HelloFresh but I still don't see how it's a greener option.

[@saittou]

I agree with ylhajee, also, it may have a lower CO2 footprint, something I'm not convinced of, but it fore sure have a worse trash footprint.

[@ylhajee]

Now that I think about it, I do want to add that for most foods transportation is only a very small part of their carbon footprint. So for the same reason that it doesn't actually change much to buy 'local', a difference in transportation between groceries and HelloFresh should not matter as much as food waste. I guess it comes down to that, and then it depends on how good someone is at avoiding food waste without the help of having everything preportioned. If you're bad at that then HelloFresh is greener. (But you could also learn to plan better and to make meals with left-over ingredients). If you're good at avoiding food waste then it's less green because of packaging and more transportation.

[@TheViolaBuddy]

@@ylhajee I think you have to consider not just your personal food waste, but also how much food goes bad sitting in the grocery store, too. But that's a funny measurement - if you switch from grocery store to meal kits/ingredient delivery services, how does that affect how much food goes bad in the grocery store? It's hard to intuit because there are too many confounding factors - will the store notice that slightly less food is being bought, and so will order less food? Will farmers subsequently also notice and therefore produce less food (thus generating less CO2)? And under a different train of thought, will other customers psychologically get more or less food because they see more food on the shelves? Etc. (Disclaimer: I don't know if there are any studies on this that have teased out these different factors; this is entirely armchair thought-experimenting.) I think most studies about plastic packaging say that, in general, plastic packaging prevents food waste which overall reduces CO2 emissions and energy consumption - BUT will also increase landfill usage. Or at least, that's what a couple of science KZbin channels have mentioned (I never looked into the original papers) - SciShow did a video about this with plastic bags, and I think a couple KZbinrs like Sally Le Page and Simon Clark have also done similar videos at one point or another.

[@ylhajee]

@@TheViolaBuddy I didn't think about the food going bad in the grocery store, good point. That will happen to a smaller extent at HelloFresh.

[@arzosahsothy]

Id love it if you could go into more detail about the relative impact of groceries vs meal kits. I'm pretty skeptical of the claim that meal kits are better. Maybe better than the worst case of packaged grocery store foods, but certainly not better than groceries from someone who tries to avoid food waste and overpackaged groceries right?

[@alextang4178]

If you have the time and patience to be conscientious to avoid waste and such, meal kit convenience is not for you.

[@ragnkja]

Also, not everyone eats the same amount of food for dinner. What do you do with 27% of a dinner portion?

[@Puppy52]

Recently bananas we bought have not been turning yellow as they ripen which is kinda odd 😅

[@W_Qimuel]

Many (or most) bananas don't naturally turn bright yellow when they ripen, but remain a yellowish green. Commercial bananas are chemically treated, which gives them that bright yellow color we're used to.

[@W_Qimuel]

@Thisis Gettinboring «Export bananas are picked green, and ripen in special rooms upon arrival in the destination country. These rooms are air-tight and filled with ethylene gas to induce ripening. The vivid yellow color consumers normally associate with supermarket bananas is, in fact, caused by the artificial ripening process.» (Wikipedia, article “Banana”, under “Ripening”) OK, so the “chemical” used here is the same gas emitted by ripening fruit, so it's not a huge deal.

[@sportsenthusiast8099]

Nice chart very helpful

[@Sivah_Akash]

I think the study that Kate is referring to when she says that meal delivery services have a lower carbon footprint is from my department at the University of Michigan. Awesome place to learn about this important field!

[@RoccosVideos]

3:10 thanks for the chart. I took a screen shot. I’ll use it as a reference.

[@8bitmagic]

This makes so much sense. I'd always hope Strawberries would taste better latter but they never do. They're good off the vine or they're not...good to know.

[@ticleasorin3223]

I've literally been curios about this like 2 days ago. This is amazing, I never knew this. Thank you for this video!

[@bennyellis3512]

Thank you! You just saved me waiting on the pineapple I literally bought today! Once there is room in the fridge, I will be cutting it up.

[@aryanasrandom5969]

The doggo at the end is soooo super cute!🥰

[@aizzelgraceastoveza94]

Thank you for teaching ripen fruit

[@nicolegorm5604]

Shoutout to the like 4 different titles this video has had in the last 24 hours

[@akshattamrakar9071]

Video I never knew I wanted but definitely needed to watch

[@stevenborgogna]

FWIW I had had quite a bit of success ripening pineapples after purchase by putting them near a sunny window where they can continue to photosynthesize. Takes about 2 to 3 weeks for the average Walmart pineapple.

[@Simon-np8bt]

Thank you! I've always been waiting pineaples to ripen but they just went bad

[@hijodelsoldeoriente]

This is very informative. Well-done!

[@harishankar-cz9tx]

awesome information. Thanks Minute Earth.

[@watema3381]

The graphics gave me a massive smile throughout the entire video. Great job!

[@brockwilson4108]

This is the most useful video I've seen in a while

[@benTi900]

Where are my fellow Patrons?

[@rpungello]

Yo

[@UnPuntoCircular]

I'm technically a patron too, so: Hi! :D

[@tttITA10]

Well, TIL. Never heard of any of this as-ripen-as-it-gets thing. Thanks!

[@Sherirose1]

Thank you for the information.

[@mobashshirfz6814]

"Why some fruits wont ripen at your counter" - was the title that didn't work Now its "The Pineapple Curse" Derek from Veritasium was damn right!

[@FairMiles]

And now it's "Why fruit is confusing"… I wonder if I should see the video again every time

[@sagacious03]

Okay analysis video! Thanks for uploading!

[@PANAMATOR1]

You can try keep your pinaple close to a ripe fruit (apples, bananas, etc), in many cases Ethylene produced by the other fruits can prommote pinaple maduration.

[@davidshamis4666]

Super interesting and informative vid, good job guys

[@xx0124xx]

This was so helpful!!!

[@cocknball410]

So happy you are Still on youtube

[@shahirkhan6344]

The beginning fruit ripening & it's consequences ; defence mechanism was splendid! How beautiful is evolution; how beautiful is biology!

[@roshanantony64]

Kate's voice is soooo soothing and peaceful 👏

[@VandrefalkTV]

Holy crap this was great, nevermind that I saved a screenshot from that diagram near the end, but the how and why was super interesting! Thanks! :D

[@TPS0]

Anyway to share that w/ the rest of the class? 🙏🏾

[@xaviermantha63]

Thanks for the video.

[@tesseract7586]

does anyone talk about how good this channel is?

[@Corruptedhope]

You never run out of science to explain, minuteearth :)

[@ethansantiago9031]

Thanks for that fruity venn diagram before the ad, it really helps😊

[@roger2bro]

Cool. Thank you for this 👍

[@termitesc.aardwolf3644]

0:18 I just love how there's a cartoon hyena angrily biting a pencil in this pic.

[@user-cv8bx5py2o]

You've saved me during my practicals

[@dryzalizer]

Cordless Ripening, what an amazing term. Love it!

[@danielloft]

Could you please share the drawing at 03:11 so that we can use it as a cheat sheet? As always, thanks for the great video!

[@mayukhchaterji3222]

How many *puns* do you want? MinuteEarth: *YES*

[@HaitaniMasayuki]

Grandma: "quick, get a lemon, the apple's gonna go bad!"

[@visillac]

I was hoping there would be a list, and there was!

[@volodyanarchist]

This is truly awesome.

[@matta687]

love your videos!

[@positivity3311]

Minuteearth is always fun to rewatch

[@lilyminer9164]

Thank goodness for that, if not all my tomatoes from my garden would have become snacks for squirrels as soon as they were ready. But we know (from experience clearly 😅) when to bring them inside now!

[@dhawthorne1634]

I've definitely ripened a star fruit on the counter.

[@DeRien8]

I've also ripened pineapples at home. But both carambolas and pineapples will only ripen so much off the plant. Pineapples will definitely sweeten a bit, but if it starts out too green you can never get it to best ripeness.

[@bvs4064]

3:07 I like how the peach is it’s emoji

[@helloDobson3259]

I'm guilty of waiting for Pineapple to ripen. Had some go baddish by waiting to long. Great to know.

[@therubberducktube]

What I take away from this is that most humans apparently dwell in super markets. I would have figured a relatively low percentage, but apparently not.

[@Mercure250]

Now that you've pointed it out, yeah, that seems a bit first-world-centric... Let's remove the "super" and settle with "markets", that would probably be a lot more accurate.

[@soniashapiro4827]

Very helpful.

[@MultiLeandrini]

This is so interesting!! I'm a biology bachelor student and I didn't know this at all. How interesting and useful!

[@JoeRose8]

This was such a helpful video

[@user-hv5zw8we2q]

Thank you so much

[@Shaun.Stephens]

Avocados? They ripen after picking but do they use a similar chemical mechanism? They don't change starch to sugars so is ethylene involved? I'm curious. Thanks.

[@ragnkja]

Avocados have a two-stage ripening process, where they first need to mature fully on the tree, and then they fall off (or get picked) and ripen to become delicious. This is why avocados that were picked too early don’t ripen, they just spoil.

[@Some_Awe]

Wireless ripening

[@prabhuin9483]

I had this doubt why the pineapple I tasted on the farm is the tastiest ever compared to the pineapples in the market. Now I got the answer after 10 years. Thanks @MinuteEarth😇

[@dinohall2595]

Fun fact: The ethylene gas that ripens many fruits, from an organic chemistry perspective, is actually ethene (CH2==CH2) which has a double bond between the carbon atoms. "Ethylene" (--CH2--CH2--) is basically the same but has a single bond between the carbon atoms, so they can each form one more bond. We call ethene "ethylene" because it is polymerized into polyethylene plastics by reactions that convert the double bond to a single bond and allow the ethylene groups to link together in a long chain.

[@ImMamba]

Love this!

[@CharChar2121]

I always let my pineapples ferment. If it tastes like liquor and it looks rotten, it is safe to eat. If it looks rotten and doesn't taste like liquor, it will poison me.

[@shawon265]

Me: clicks on the video Fruity puns: so, you have chosen death

[@quincy061]

This was some good food for thought.

[@cestmirybka]

Best ad to hello fresh so far

[@lidge1994]

Question, should the fruit on the orange side of the apple and orange Venn diagram be kept in the fridge and the fruit on the apple side on your counter?

[@slovan01]

Fascinating.

[@robertgibson2521]

Is this still the case for grapes when they are in bags since they are still attached to the stem in the bag or is it still the case because the stem itself is no longer attached to the vine?

[@heatherweir8726]

A chart should be provided in stores to help people lessen food waste.

[@SapientPearwood]

I really hope that graphic at the end gets made into a poster. I'd absolutely buy that and hang it in my kitchen.

[@Mr_Raji]

Thanks

[@PloverTechOfficial]

Wonderful stuff to know

[@NotLaevender]

This is so cool!!

[@sanketpatel9030]

That venn diagram is very helpful

[@al4221]

i never have any luck with avocados like i turn around for two seconds and they go from really brown and hard to straight up rotten no in between whatsoever :/

[@roseslikemusic]

This was great! I have always wondered what the point of fruit is. I mean, why would plants evolve to have parts of it being eaten? It seems counterproductive. But now I know! Thanks MinuteEarth!

[@ZipplyZane]

I don't know about blueberries. I've found that they do in fact get sweeter if you wait, though the window of opportunity is small before they rot. But just slightly softer tends to be quite good. Maybe it's not how they would ripen naturally if still on their bushes, but it does make them sweeter and less hard.

[@thany3]

I'd like to know why some fruits have such a small window of sweetness. Take peaches, for example. While unripe, they're awful. Then they're ripe and sweet and delicious for about all of 1 nanosecond. And after that, they are rotten and sticky (all while attracting a billion fruitflies). On the other hand, bananas are fairly quick to ripen, and they are quite alright even before fully yellow. And after having ripened, they are still perfectly edible for 3-5 days. Apples are even better, they are usually ripe straight from the supermarkets, and that's because they stay fresh and delicious for a very long time. In the fridge, you can easily keep them that way for 3 weeks. And then there's the other end of the spectrum: kaki fruits. They tend to take 3-6 WEEKS to ripen to an edible state, and another few days to develop any kind of sweetness. And then they stay there for only 2 or 3 days. And then there's the class of mouldy fruits. Strawberries, blueberries, and blackcurrants. They are perfectly edible all the time after purchase. But they WILL develop mould, which of course is poisonous, and a real waste of money. But the weird thing is that mould will develop not as part of the rotting process, as part of a mouldy strawberry might still be perfectly ripe and sweet. Why, dear MinuteEarth, is nature so cruel on us, and what golden tips can you provide for us to deal with this? Or maybe you can at least explain why it works the way it does?

[@MinuteEarth]

Great questions - essentially it all boils down to how yummy and accessible a fruit is to microorganisms. The sweeter the flesh, the thinner the peel, etc, the easier it is for bacteria and mold to find and access the fruit...and once that happens, the fruit starts to rot. So ripening is a bit of a tradeoff - attracting dispersers also means attracting microorganisms, and protecting yourself from rotting can also mean making yourself less accessible to dispersers. Those quick-to-rot fruits (e.g. strawberries) fall one one side of this tradeoff, and the hardier ones (e.g. apples) have made a different "choice."

[@Arikayx13]

Moulds generally need some dampness or moisture to grow, which can come from damaged fruits or from condensation, washing water getting trapped between fruits, this is why it’s often the bottom fruits that mold. To reduce the chances of mold, dump the berries out onto a paper towel covered plate, pick out anything with damage to either toss or eat first, pat down with another towel, then place them back into a new container with a dry paper towel at the bottom and make sure it’s partially open to fridge air to allow for evaporative airflow.

[@thany3]

@Thisis Gettinboring Very true, but I tend to eat mould only when it's been grown intentionally for consumption 😀

[@develhuntr75]

you guys are really trying to mess with the algorithm with all these thumbnail changes