FDA warns against viral avocado ‘kitchen tip’ that can make you sick

(NEXSTAR) – The Food items and Drug Administration is at the time again recommending versus a viral “kitchen tip” for holding avocados from likely bad, warning that it basically improves the chance of contamination and foodborne sickness.

The “tip,” as offered on social media websites this sort of as Facebook or TikTok, encourages viewers to submerge unripe or all set-to-eat avocados in a container of h2o and store them in the fridge. The end users who shared the concept on Facebook and TikTok assert this process keeps the avocados’ flesh from turning brown for up to a month.

The Fda had issued a statement in response to one of the Facebook posts in March, Currently.com beforehand noted. But officers are once more reminding customers to chorus from the exercise because of to the danger of salmonella poisoning or listeriosis.

“The principal problem is with the likelihood that any residual human pathogens (i.e. Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., etc.) that might be residing on the avocado area … may perhaps possibly multiply through the storage when submerged in h2o,” the Fda wrote in a statement shared with Nexstar, in reaction to a viral TikTok online video very first noted by Newsweek.

The threat isn’t only on the skin, either. An Food and drug administration research performed in 2016 concluded that listeria microorganisms on the skin of an avocado “has the potential to infiltrate and internalize into the pulp of the avocado when submerged in refrigerated dump tanks” for about two weeks,” the company claimed.

“In this scenario, even surface area disinfecting the avocado skin prior to slicing would not be able to eliminate the contamination.”

A independent Fda review a handful of a long time in advance of also located listeria microbes was far more frequently detected on the pores and skin of avocados than salmonella, even though equally had been observed in the research sample. A more compact share (.24%) have been uncovered to have flesh contaminated with listeria monocytogenes.

As an alternative of storing the avocados in drinking water, the California Avocado Commission suggests storing ripened fruit in the refrigerator, in which they really should remain clean for two to a few days. Sliced or halved avocados can also be refrigerated and will final more time with lemon juice, lime juice or white vinegar sprinkled on the cut surfaces.

Avocados not however prepared to try to eat can be stored in a paper bag at space temperature. The procedure can be accelerated by trying to keep a kiwi or an apple in the similar bag. The avocado is ripe when it “yields to light pressure,” the California Avocado Fee writes.