Why Some Fruits Won’t Ripen On Your Counter

[@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! :)

[@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)

[@ИванЛебедь-я2ф]

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]

@@ИванЛебедь-я2ф Oh no! So anyway...

[@HaloWolf102]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@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

[@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

[@SuperDestroyerFox]

Or some need to use a charger while others use a rechargeable battery kept with them

[@kawaiipurplesaphire6163]

ONLY SKIBIDI BABY GRONK RIZZ IS THE REAL MEW MAXER

[@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

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@wendyjomendy]

I can't seem to get my apples from the store to ripen. Got any tips?

[@Adaginy]

@@wendyjomendy apples, bananas, and tomatoes all give off ethylene, and all ripen with ethylene, so you could try bagging those together? They'll alllll get riper though, so you'd better have banana bread plans. More confident advice that is less useful: don't get ones with leaves on the stem. A ripe apple will come off the tree with the barest tug (had one of those trees too). Leaves probably mean it had to be yanked or cut. That said, there's enough apple variety that an apple you think is unripe might just naturally be a tarter, crisper, greener apple, especially if you have a whole bag of them that way.

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@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!

[@Gigifrancetexas]

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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@92Pyromaniac]

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

[@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.

[@AzjatyckiCukier]

It's nice you care about emissions in transport and package, but I'd encourage you to look into the emissions of foods that you consume...

[@SagarikaPuri]

This! Meat (at least the traditional kind, not cultivated meat) is an extremely high emission food. 👏🏼

[@georgplaz]

Yes and no. I feel like the burden of reducing CO2 should not lie on the end consumer. It should lie with the companies who pollute the planet. Go carbon tax :)

[@estergrant6713]

@@georgplaz hit the nail on the head. all this pushing of eco responsability on consumers is a distraction from the companies who contribute giant footprints

[@AzjatyckiCukier]

@@estergrant6713 Then you should critique the author of the video bringing CO2 emissions in packaging, but you only speak up once someone points out the CO2 emitting elephant in the room.

[@bramvanduijn8086]

Trivial when compared to fossil fuel use (about 87%). The fossil fuel use top 3 are: 1. Electricity and heating. 42% 2. Transport. 22% 3. Industrial. 20% Agriculture is only 10% of total CO2 emissions (It scores high on methane and Nitrogen compounds though). A part of which is fibre, not food. And of that smaller part of food, only half has above average emissions. Don't get me wrong, reducing agriculture emissions is a good thing, but the first thing a consumer should do is put on a damned sweater and turn down the heating. Also, stop ordering junk from far away. You don't need that much stuff, but even if you insist you can probably get it from somewhere closer than the other side of the planet. There are also construction materials and methods that greatly reduce the amount of heating and cooling your house requires.

[@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!

[@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.

[@trashbug4843]

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

[@ekiratomi]

Thanks for last image 😱🙏🙏

[@fernandosacchetto5215]

And a handy "fruit hack" is that bananas are CRAZY producers of ethylene. If you want a fruit (one that *can* ripen outside of the plant) to ripen, put it next to bananas. If you *don't* want your fruit to ripen too fast (since it tends to go bad after it finishes ripening), better isolate it from the bananas. It's also why you should buy your bananas as green as feasible (depending on when you intend to consume), and eat them quickly once they're ripe.

[@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.

[@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.

[@Khalilmack52]

Nice chart very helpful

[@nicolegorm5604]

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

[@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.

[@Simon-np8bt]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@benTi900]

Where are my fellow Patrons?

[@rpungello]

Yo

[@UnPuntoCircular]

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

[@CharliMorganMusic]

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.

[@brockwilson4108]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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!

[@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.

[@ticleasorin3223]

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

[@watema3381]

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

[@RoccosVideos]

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

[@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? 🙏🏾

[@minute-ai]

Can you please make a video on why your thumbnails and title always change?

[@MultiLeandrini]

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

[@Darknimbus3]

Oh yeah, also the bananas you know and love won’t actually have any fertile seeds. The modern banana was inbred and cultivated to such an extent that even if they wanted to, the tiny seeds will not germinate. Its ancestral counterpart on the other hand, with big seeds and less palatable flesh, will germinate.

[@aryanasrandom5969]

The doggo at the end is soooo super cute!🥰

[@lavenderwalrus9875]

doesnt anyone know which side of the diagram pitaya falls into?

[@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!

[@SpaveFrostKing]

Could you share some of the research that shows meal kits are more sustainable than getting food from a supermarket?

[@MinuteEarth]

Sure! Here's one I found really interesting: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921344919301703

[@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.

[@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.

[@akshattamrakar9071]

Video I never knew I wanted but definitely needed to watch

[@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 😀

[@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😇

[@ethansantiago9031]

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

[@1jotun136]

If you want your bananas to stay green a bit longer, wrap the stem ends with some cling wrap. It will extend their self life for up to a week as you're blocking the ethylene from off gassing.

[@shahirkhan6344]

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

[@HaitaniMasayuki]

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

[@Corruptedhope]

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

[@Crusnik333]

chili peppers also dont ripen after they are detached from the plants or can they still ripen afterwards?

[@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 :/

[@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?

[@mayukhchaterji3222]

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

[@funkysagancat3295]

I had the same reaction and got really skeptic when I heard that companies like hello fresh tend to have a smaller CO2 footprint, I got my mind blown when I read the research

[@Suppenfischeintopf]

Hello Fresh was the main reason that drove me to install an ad blocker some time ago. Please don't make me install a sponsor blocker next …

[@seek9099]

Fun fact: The previous title was called “why fruit is confusing” (at least I think)

[@sonicvenom8292]

Yeah, if I recall it could've also been "fruit is confusing".

[@seek9099]

@@sonicvenom8292 idk I only recall that

[@harishankar-cz9tx]

awesome information. Thanks Minute Earth.

[@Elfos64]

Your explanation that foods on the ground no longer needing to be plugged in to ripen makes sense for things that grow up in trees, but Pineapples grow on the ground to begin with, so it seems a little counter-productive for them to need to stay on the vine to ripen when they're in reach of things that will eat them.

[@helloDobson3259]

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

[@tesseract7586]

does anyone talk about how good this channel is?

[@4thalt]

1:57 Wireless Ripening

[@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?

[@aiterusawato]

The climacteric Venn diagram is great and useful, but some fruits are not as straightforward as it can make you think. I know figs a bit and despite being climacteric, they show non-climacteric characteristics and won't ripen on your counter as they do on the tree. Other fruits might show this kind of dual characteristics as well. Further information: Lama et al., 2018. The distinct ripening processes in the reproductive and non-reproductive parts of the fig syconium are driven by ABA.

[@MinuteEarth]

You're definitely right - there is a lot of nuance here that even scientists haven't been able to get to the bottom of yet!

[@aiterusawato]

@@MinuteEarth indeed. I always get amazed how natural selection generated so many incredibly complex mechanisms. Every single mundane object is his own full-fledged mystery, and science still has so much work to do until they are completely solved, if they can ever be.

[@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.

[@roshanantony64]

Kate's voice is soooo soothing and peaceful 👏

[@Illumisepoolist]

Can you do a video about why we can't eat raw meat but other animals can?

[@hijodelsoldeoriente]

This is very informative. Well-done!

[@johnno4127]

I was surprised, a little, to not hear the word "climacteric". But since it sounds like "climate" I'm glad you at least put it in the description.

[@jayawilder3835]

Please, could anybody tell me which varieties of pear are sold "as ripe as they will get"? Pears are my favourite fruit and I don't buy them because they either stay rock hard for weeks or go mushy in hours. I'd like to know which ones will be edible as soon as I buy them and won't get any mushier.

[@donatoliotino1872]

4:02 All i want is a video featuring her dog. THATS IT!

[@MinuteEarth]

Your wish is our command: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fKrHfZetrNN6m6s

[@NIKHIL-s2n]

You've saved me during my practicals

[@Some_Awe]

Wireless ripening

[@visillac]

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

[@sagacious03]

Okay analysis video! Thanks for uploading!

[@termitesc.aardwolf3644]

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

[@thebestauthor8212]

Actually, we’re working on the new model for some types of fruits. The Pineapple model 2000ᵀᴹ is coming soon, and it has a wireless charging feature!

[@dryzalizer]

Cordless Ripening, what an amazing term. Love it!

[@egito9930]

Why is the drawing of passionfruit purple? Isn’t it supposed to be yellow?

[@DavidsDives]

Super interesting and informative vid, good job guys

[@Mythraen]

I tried to dwell in the supermarket, but people kept yelling at me about how they were closing (I don't know how people close.Their mouths were still open.) and I was trespassing (I mean, they let me in. They even said "hello" in a friendly way.) and then they called some people in blue uniforms who dragged me out of the store. It was pretty rude.

[@da4127]

Mangoes also depend on the variety, in my country we grow these smaller, sweeter, and more watery mangoes, but unlike the bigger mangoes that we export, these do not ripen after they are picked, technically they do, they will just turn yellowish and taste awful, if you want to have a full yellow and sweet one, you need to pick them when they are ripe, which means they cannot be transported because they just get smashed.

[@milkuetea]

So, bananas are the Airpods of fruits-

[@davidvarga2916]

If you leave a lemon ripen on a tree for a long time will it get sweeter?

[@tttITA10]

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

[@Sek11250]

So happy you are Still on youtube