What you see: Brownish discoloration inside a plum What it is: Likely flesh browning from too-cold storage Eat or toss: The plum doesn’t taste good, right? It’s
Why did this orange turn purple?!?
What you see: An orange slice that looked normal and, many hours later, turned purple. What it is: A pigment in the orange reacted with iron on the knife used
The tale of the roughed up plum
What you see: Rough, pockmarked plum skin with sunken areasWhat it is: Dehydration and pitting probably caused by poor storage; this plum may have also suffered
Bumps on your eggshell
What you see: Hard, sand-like bumps or a gritty texture on your egg’s shell. What it is: Calcium carbonate deposits. Eat or toss: The egg is fine. Large
She cut open a pepper and water gushed out?!?
What you see: Water spilling out of your pepper when you slice it open What it is: It’s hard to say for certain, but if the pepper otherwise looks fine, it
Hard, white area in onion?
What you see: An onion with a thick, white “core” What it is: An especially prominent onion stem Eat or toss: Cut around the stem area; it will be too thick and
Green areas inside your carrot?
What you see: Green inside your carrot What it is: Chlorophyll that developed after excess sun exposure Eat or toss: If it’s just a ring, like you see here
Yep, that greenish “dirt” on your kale is caterpillar droppings
What you see: A greenish brownish, maybe wet "dirt" on your kale leaves. What it is: Caterpillar poop. Eat or toss: If the kale is otherwise healthy looking,
Dark scratch on grapefruit
What you see: A dark, scratched-out-looking spot on your grapefruit. What it is: Probably an injury from the harvest process. Eat or toss? Eat! As long as
The carrots split!
What you see: A carrot that’s split What it is: The carrot literally cracked under pressure Eat or toss: Eat! It’s perfectly fine. Why is it OK to eat
Potatoes with stems?!?
What you see: A papery, dried stem-y bit attached to your potato What it is: The remnants of a stem that should have fallen off Eat or toss: Pinch or cut it off
That white, milky onion juice?
What you see: Milky juice coming out of your onion as you chop What is it: Onion juice! Eat or toss: Eat! This is a perfectly fine onion. You can eat an
A carrot with a white center
What you see: A carrot with a white "core."What it is: A perfectly fine, two-toned carrot Eat or toss: Eat! Here's why it's entirely OK to eat a carrot with
Green caterpillars hanging in the broccoli jungle
What you see: Green wormy grubs in broccoli, maybe even left behind in your cooking water (where they probably turned white). They may have also eaten away at
There’s a worm in my turnip!
What you see: A worm thing burrowing in your turnip What it is: A maggot! Specifically, a root maggot. Eat or toss: Cut around the maggot and its trails. The
Black strings in your mango?
What you see: Black veins running through mango flesh What it is: Darkened vascular canals! Eat or toss? Cut around them if you’d like, but the mango is still
