What you see: A white wispy thing around your apple stem. What it is: Insect webbing. Eat or toss: Wipe it off and get on with your apple-eating
How ripe is too ripe for banana bread?
What you see: A banana that is very brown and maybe a bit shriveled. What it is: A very overripe banana. Eat or toss: If you don’t see any signs of microbial
Can you eat leftover sushi?
What you see: Your leftover sushi, the next day.What it is: Day-old sushi.Eat or toss: If it was promptly refrigerated, the risk is unlikely to have risen much
Black around center of banana
What you see: A banana with a very dark center.What it is: Most likely a stressed banana that’s still holding it together.Eat or toss: If it looks normal, but
What happened when I tried jars and other berry storage hacks
The social media posts haunted me. They featured photos of bright berries and grapes stacked in darling Mason jars, or cutesy illustrations of jars packed with
Why are some banana peels grayish?
What you see: Your banana’s peel looks grayish and dull; it may have streaky patches of gray. What it is: Chilling injury!Eat or toss: Eat! This banana
Tiny bugs in the kale you just pulled from the fridge?
What you see: Little tiny bugs in your kale. What it is: Aphids!Eat or toss: Eat. Just rinse the kale and eat as normal. A bunch of kale, fresh from the
Can you eat a banana if the peel split?
What you see: A banana that looks mostly fine, except its skin has split. What it is: The wrong kind of banana split!Eat or toss: To be on the safe side, either
What if broccoli gets soft and floppy?
What you see: Your broccoli is bendy or floppy. It’s lost its firm texture. What it is: Water loss. Eat or toss: Eat! As long as everything else looks
Giant bump on apple
What you see: A large, knob-like protrusion on your apple. It’s woody, corky or rough. The flesh underneath it looks perfectly fine. What it is: Probably a scar
Fuzzy cauliflower?
What you see: Your cauliflower looks...fuzzy? Not like a patch of mold, but something else…What it is: The cauliflower is over mature or experienced challenging
Dark, dented spots on apple?
What you see: Sunken dark spots on an apple. The skin still appears smooth.What it is: A number of issues can cause sunken areas on otherwise smooth apple skin,
Very odd lump inside egg
What you see: A beige clump in your egg.What it is: A tumor, yeek.Eat or toss: We can’t imagine anyone wanting to eat it. We also can’t, however, identify any
Virtual tour of a lab that studies apples
Many of the posts on EatOrToss are written after interviews and email exchanges with scientists who study fruits, vegetables and other foods. I was thrilled
Dark, raised bumps on egg shell
What you see: Some dark brown spots on your light brown egg. They don’t look like dirt or manure, but don’t look quite right either. They may or may not be
Corky patches on avocado skin?
What you see: Rough brown patches on the surface of your avocado. They may look a little geometric, possibly like scales. What it is: Most likely, windblown
