Australia might have solved one of life's burning issues - the bruised avocado.
Research conducted this year found 97 percent of customers gave avocados a squeeze to test ripeness before buying, leading to bruising.
Photo: Wikicommons
The Australian avocado industry looked at various ways to stop this happening.
It found segregating the fruit on display according to the stages of ripeness and using signs to tell customers which fruit to buy according to when they wanted to eat it reduced bruising by 60 percent and led to an increase in the amount of fruit sold.
NZ Avocado chief executive Jen Scoular tells Guyon Espiner on Morning Report that when it comes to ripeness: don’t squeeze and trust your eyes.
Hass avocados are the number-one traded avocados in the world because they store very well and colour up so perfectly.
"Believe the colour, use your eyes, that lovely purple-brown colour does mean it’s ready to eat today.”
Scoular also says when it comes to ripening, there’s no shortcut once the fruit’s off the tree.
Bananas can help, but never, never try to ripen in the oven.
