Supermarket shoppers buying avocados urged to follow '5-day rule'

Supermarket shoppers buying avocados are being urged to follow a 'five-day rule' to guarantee maximum freshness.

Determining how ripe an avocado is just by the colour of the skin alone can be difficult, so shoppers are advised to apply a five-day rule to their purchases to help determine when the fruit is ready to eat. Typically, it takes around that number of days on average for a firm and green avocado to ripen at room temperature, and once it's ready to eat, it'll generally only last two to three days before it turns bad, so there's only a short window when the fruit is at its best. According to experts at Fresh Avocados - Love One Today - when buying an avocado for a specific occasion or event, you pick one that has green skin and feels firm to the touch and always buy it exactly five days before you intend to eat it.

As green, unripe avocados tend to take five days to fully ripen, making your supermarket purchase five days in advance of when you plan to eat it should guarantee it will be lovely and ripe when you cut into it.

The nutrition website explains: "Unripe, firm green avocados can be purchased four to five 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."

Fresh avocados that are almost ripe will feel less firm, be darker in colour and won't quite yield to gentle pressure. When avocados are at this stage it is advised that you wait one to two days to allow the fruit to fully ripen, otherwise the flesh inside will be hard and difficult to mash.

If avocados are almost black in colour with just a hint of green, and yield to pressure, this is when they are at their ripest and should be eaten right away.

The colour of the fruit can vary depending on the variety you choose. For example, Fuerte, Ettinger, Reed, and Sharwill avocados stay 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 best avoided.