Shoppers are being told about the essential rule you need to know when buying avocados (Image: Getty)
Shoppers buying avocados in supermarkets have been issued a five-day warning over the perfect time to purchase them.
It can be difficult to tell from the appearance of the popular fruit , so experts say you should apply a strict time frame to your purchase.
Fresh Avocados – Love One Today warns that if you want an avocado for a specific occasion or event then you should buy it five days in advance, and make sure it is firm and green in colour.
This is because firm or green fruit takes around five days on average to ripen at room temperature, so by the time your event rolls around the avocado should be fully ripe.
The nutrition website explains: “Unripe, firm green avocados can be purchased 4-5 days ahead of an event.
“Ripe fresh avocados that yield to gentle pressure should be eaten within a day or two. For events that are four to five days out, purchase firm avocados instead. Unripe, firm or green fruit can take four to five days to ripen at room temperature, perfect for celebrations that are a few days out.
“Just be careful to watch the fruit to make sure the temperature in your kitchen does not cause them to ripen too quickly. If they begin to yield to gentle pressure, place them in the refrigerator to slow the ripening process.”
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Fresh avocados that are almost ripe will feel less firm, be darker in colour and won’t quite yield to gentle pressure. At this stage it is best to wait around one to two days for the fruit to fully ripen or the flesh inside will be quite hard and difficult to mash.
Avocados that are almost black in colour, with only a hint of green, and yield to pressure are the ripest and should be eaten straight away.
The colour can vary depending on the variety you choose, with Fuerte, Ettinger, Reed, and Sharwill avocados staying green when ripe, so it’s best to go by firmness as well as colour to determine if the fruit is ready to eat.
If an avocado feels mushy to the touch and has deep indentations, with darker yellow or brown coloured flesh, then it is overripe and is best avoided.