Avocados are best when they are balanced. If a part of the Avocado is too green or too brown, it won’t taste good. On the inside, it shouldn’t be brown. Furthermore, it should not feel too soft or too hard when you squeeze it gently.

Our best advice is that if you already have an avocado that smells bad at home or find yourself eating an avocado with brown spots, you should just throw it away. It honestly is not worth the potential health problems and digestive problems you could experience by eating rotten food. Anyone who has had food poisoning will tell you that it is not a pleasant experience. Therefore, as the old saying goes, It’s better to be safe than sorry!

Congratulations if you’ve found an avocado that has the perfect balance of characteristics! The best Avocado is not always easy to find in the store right away!

Several of them will feel too hard to eat right now, so you’ll need to wait until they ripen. You should not even buy them because they are too mushy and soft.

We understand that it could seem challenging to determine whether your Avocado is bad or not, but don’t worry! That’s why we’ve created these tips on what to look out for to help you decide.

Identifying bad avocados

When avocados become too soft and mushy, and the interior turns brown, they’re bad. When you squeeze an avocado, you can tell if it’s bad. If it feels very soft, it is best to choose another one.

There may also be cracks in the shell, an unpleasant smell coming from it, maybe even looking very shriveled and black, or it has been placed near a bad avocado.

These fruits are susceptible to turning mushy very quickly. The period of time you have to eat them before they are no longer edible is only 24 hours or less from the moment they’re ripe.

Let’s examine all the checklists you can go through to determine whether an avocado is fresh or bad.

Avocados should not appear shriveled on the outside

First, we must look at the outside of the Avocado. If it seems dry and shriveled up, it is best to choose a different one.

Ideally, avocados should be round and bumpy, not flat and withered. So, ensure you can see a nice ripe surface before making your choice of Avocado.

You can also use an avocado if you already have one. It may begin to collapse after a while if you’ve had it a long time. That’s not good. It’s probably better to throw it away.

Before you throw away that questionable Avocado, follow these steps if you want to be sure!

The Avocado should not be too soft to the touch or mushy

It’s safe to say that one thing is certain when you pick up an avocado that looks a bit dodgy; it shouldn’t be mushy. The Avocado should be softer to the touch but also slightly firm.

Without even trying, you will easily be able to prod your finger through overripe fruit. However, there are ways of determining that it hasn’t gone bad, and it doesn’t always mean that it is bad.

If, however, you buy an avocado that can be sliced through far too easily, we’d recommend throwing it away, as this is a good indication that it is far too ripe and not fit for human consumption.

 

A fresh avocado should not have a bad smell

Rotten avocados are the only ones that fall under this category. Generally, you can’t smell avocados, especially if they are not cut open.

So, if you smell an awful odour coming from an avocado at the shop, rather leave it alone and choose another one.

Cut the Avocado open; it should be creamy but firm

If you buy an avocado, keep it around for a few days, and then decide to cut it open, your knife shouldn’t rip it right through.

Although avocados should be soft enough to stop your knife from sticking to the inside them or making it impossible to cut through them, they should not be so soft that the knife makes them explode out of their shell.

It’s probably best to just throw out your questionable Avocado if you are about to slice it open and the knife smooshes right through.

If you still wish to salvage your Avocado, you might want to follow the next few steps. Keep reading!

There needs to be a yellowish tint to the green

You can tell if your Avocado is getting old by the colour of the flesh when you cut it open. However, you can still eat a brown avocado as it doesn’t mean it has gone off, but it just doesn’t look charming to eat. You may want to consider cutting off the brown bits, though.

However, if your Avocado is black or grey inside, and you can smell, see, and feel that it is rotten, then toss it away.

If, however, the Avocado is green when cut open but turns brown afterwards, that’s another story. Due to oxidation, avocados will turn brown after being out for a while. It may be off-putting, but it is still safe to eat.

It is a great idea to squeeze some lime or lemon on top of your Avocado to prevent it from turning brown once it has opened! Your Avocado will not only taste great, but it will also stay green!

The taste should be mild

This applies ONLY to avocados that are already included in a dish. Restaurants sometimes use old ingredients to avoid food waste (hence no profit loss). As a result, you might not realize the Avocado is spoiled until you eat it.

After a few nibbles, do not finish eating this soft, green fruit if you taste something unpleasant, even a slight bitterness. It has long been recognized that bitter tastes (not to be confused with sour tastes such as lemons and limes) indicate poison or something harmful. Kind of like your own personal built-in body security system!