ABC Rural

Losing the bruising from avocados

ABC Rural

Researchers want everyone to eat a perfect avocado


It's thought that 80 per cent of all avocados are damaged by the time shoppers get them home and that puts them off buying more.

So researchers at the University of Queensland are trying to understand why so many avocados are a brown, bruised disappointment.

Professor Daryl Joyce and PhD student Muhammad Sohail Mazhar are currently researching when and how the damage occurs and what could be done to limit it.

Professor Joyce says market research shows that problems reduce the repeat purchase of the fruit, so obviously if we can get around the problem then people will buy more avocados.

Professor Daryl Joyce and his team have followed avocados through the supply chain, from ripener, through the distribution centre, to the retailer.

He's discovered that most flesh bruising occurs at the shop and that a bruise on an avocado can continue to grow and intensify for up to 96 hours.

They used a magnetic resonance imaging machine at UQ to examine the bruised flesh of whole avocados over time.

The team intends to carry on its research by examining how shoppers contribute to bruising the avocado fruit in the shop, with over-zealous prodding and poking, and at home.

They also plan to look at how to stop it happening.

Professor Joyce thinks that educating people to be gentle with avos and developing a machine that tests the firmness of the fruit is the way forward.

Precise firmness-testing machines for avocados already exist in laboratories, but an affordable machine to put in the fruit and veg aisle is what's needed.

He thinks technology might be the answer: "Can we replace the human hand with some simple, low-cost instrument that will be able to work out if the fruit is ready to eat?"

So next time you fancy an avocado, ignore its leathery, rough exterior and treat it like a delicate peach!

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