WEBVTT - How Old Are Grocery Store Apples?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,

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<v Speaker 1>Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vogebam here. Though today they're available

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<v Speaker 1>year round in many parts of the world, apples were

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<v Speaker 1>once strictly a fall time treat, and they remain one

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<v Speaker 1>of the cornerstones of seasonal cooking in the United States.

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<v Speaker 1>If you live in the US, your apples probably didn't

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<v Speaker 1>travel too far to reach you. Only five percent of

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<v Speaker 1>the apples sold in the US are imported. The rest

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<v Speaker 1>are grown domestically intemperate states like Washington, New York, and Michigan.

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<v Speaker 1>But the apples in grocery store bins aren't usually sold

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<v Speaker 1>when they're harvested. They might have been in storage for

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<v Speaker 1>up to a year. So unless you take a trip

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<v Speaker 1>to your local orchard, how do you know whether the

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<v Speaker 1>apples you're buying are actually fresh? And if they're not

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<v Speaker 1>doesn't matter. A picture yourself walking down the aisle of

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<v Speaker 1>your local grocery storm, strolling past piles upon piles of shiny,

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<v Speaker 1>round apples. How do you know which ones to buy?

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<v Speaker 1>Start by looking at the surrounding apples. For the article

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<v Speaker 1>this episode is based on, has to Fork Spook by

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<v Speaker 1>email with Jessica Cooperstone a food scientist at the Ohio

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<v Speaker 1>State University. She said apples are climatric fruit, meaning the

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<v Speaker 1>fruits continue to develop and ripen after they're removed from

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<v Speaker 1>the tree. Apples and their climatric ilk are highly sensitive

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<v Speaker 1>to ethylene, the chemical compound that causes fruits to convert

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<v Speaker 1>starchy cellulose into sugars, otherwise known as ripening. As they ripen,

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<v Speaker 1>apples release more ethylene, which bleeds the fruit around them

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<v Speaker 1>to ripen faster as well. In this way, one bad

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<v Speaker 1>apple really can spoil the whole bunch. Other climatric fruits

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<v Speaker 1>include bananas and avocados, while non climatric fruits include things

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<v Speaker 1>like strawberries and cherries. Since ethylene is pretty much a

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<v Speaker 1>universal chemical symbol for ripe in climactric plants, it will

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<v Speaker 1>even help ripen fruit across species. You can harness its

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<v Speaker 1>power for yourself. Try putting a hard avocado in the

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<v Speaker 1>same bowl as an apple and see how much quicker

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<v Speaker 1>the avocado ripens. Apple harvesting season is very short, about

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<v Speaker 1>two months in the fall for most varieties, so in

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<v Speaker 1>order to extend their lives after picking, apples are usually

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<v Speaker 1>treated with a gaseous compound that blocks ethylene, and that's

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<v Speaker 1>not all. Cooper Stone explained by modifying the environment that

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<v Speaker 1>apples are stored in, mostly by modifying oxygen, carbon dioxide,

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<v Speaker 1>and ethylene and keeping apples cool, certain varieties of apples

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<v Speaker 1>can be stored for up to one year. This is

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<v Speaker 1>a really impressive feat of post harvest storage technology, and

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<v Speaker 1>most of this development happened in the first part of

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<v Speaker 1>the twentieth century. It's called controlled atmosphere storage. When apples

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<v Speaker 1>are exposed to less oxygen and more carbon dioxide than

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<v Speaker 1>what's found in the air, they in a sense go

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<v Speaker 1>to sleep and don't finish the ripening process, so these

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<v Speaker 1>apples won't spoil. The exact combination of gases and temperature

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<v Speaker 1>necessary to do this varies with the type of apple,

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<v Speaker 1>perhaps unsurprisingly, the types of apples that can handle this process,

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<v Speaker 1>like Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, Honey, Crisp band Red Delicious,

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<v Speaker 1>are the ones you're most likely to encounter in a

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<v Speaker 1>mass market grocery store, and not every apple is equally preservable.

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<v Speaker 1>Some fragile skinned types well like Courtland, Jonah Gold and Crispin,

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<v Speaker 1>should be eaten soon after they're picked. Otherwise they might

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<v Speaker 1>become too soft and mealy for eating fresh, though they'd

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<v Speaker 1>still be fine for many cooking applications. These days, science

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<v Speaker 1>is stepping in to create new types of more resilient fruit,

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<v Speaker 1>and take for example, the ruby frost apple, which was

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<v Speaker 1>developed by Cornell University especially for winter time consumption. These hybrids,

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<v Speaker 1>crossed between brayburn and autumn crisp, are bred to reach

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<v Speaker 1>peak sweetness in mid to late January, months after they're harvested.

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<v Speaker 1>While some new types of apple like the Ruby Frost

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<v Speaker 1>are the product of careful selective breeding, others are the

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<v Speaker 1>result of more modern genetic engineering. Arctic apples, which are

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<v Speaker 1>genetically modified to resist browning, became one of the first

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<v Speaker 1>GMO fruits to be approved by the U. S Department

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<v Speaker 1>of Agriculture. There isn't a way to tell when an

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<v Speaker 1>apple was picked just by looking at it in a

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<v Speaker 1>grocery store, and in some ways it doesn't matter, but

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<v Speaker 1>you still want to make sure the apples you buy

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<v Speaker 1>will be tasty and ripe. A touch is a better

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<v Speaker 1>indicator than color, since the colors that signify ripeness can

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<v Speaker 1>vary pretty widely. The apple should be firm, but not hard,

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<v Speaker 1>you can press it with your thumb to see, and

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<v Speaker 1>it shouldn't have bruises. Once you bring apples home, store

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<v Speaker 1>them in a cool, humid place like your refrigerator's crisper drawer.

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<v Speaker 1>But even if you do wind up with an aging

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<v Speaker 1>or overly ripe apple that's lost its firmness, it still

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<v Speaker 1>has uses a cooper Stone set. If I've kept apples

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<v Speaker 1>for a long time and find they're shriveling enough that

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<v Speaker 1>I don't want to eat them fresh, I'll use them

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<v Speaker 1>in a cooked application. A slightly wrinkly apple may not

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<v Speaker 1>look as pretty as a freshly picked one, but both

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<v Speaker 1>are totally safe to eat, and the wrinkled ones are

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<v Speaker 1>great and hot oatmeal or baked into a pie. However,

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<v Speaker 1>you definitely want to avoid apples that have mold growing

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<v Speaker 1>on them or that have begun to use liquid. But

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<v Speaker 1>your chances of getting food poisoning from an apple are

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<v Speaker 1>slim but not zero, so it's important to wash your

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<v Speaker 1>apples before you chow down as well. Once your apples

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<v Speaker 1>are out of storage and thoroughly cleaned, it's time for

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<v Speaker 1>some good old fashioned fall cooking. Any time of year,

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<v Speaker 1>from caramel to crumble to cider. And cake. The possibilities

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<v Speaker 1>are all delicious. Today's episode is based on the article

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<v Speaker 1>your grocery store Apple could be a year old, but

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<v Speaker 1>That's Okay on how stuff works dot Com, written by

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<v Speaker 1>Joanna Thompson. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio

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<v Speaker 1>in partnership with how staff works dot Com, and it's

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<v Speaker 1>produced by Tyler clang Be. Four more podcasts from my

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<v Speaker 1>heart Radio, visit the a heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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<v Speaker 1>or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.