How to Store Avocados Once They’re Ripe | Glad® (2024)

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How to Store Avocados Once They’re Ripe | Glad®? ›

Countertop, Fridge or Freezer? Until they're fully ripe, avocados should be stored at room temperature. Placing an unripe avocado in the refrigerator will slow the ripening process, but the same concept applies to ripe avocados: put them in the refrigerator to keep them at their prime ripeness for longer.

You can speed up the avocado-ripening process with a piece of fruit. Put an avocado in a paper bag with a banana, an apple or a kiwi and fold to seal. These fruits produce ethylene gas, a plant hormone that aids ripening.

How do you keep an avocado from going bad? If your avocado is uncut, check it often to see how it's progressing. If it's cut, protect the fruit's surface by adding lemon/lime juice or water on top of it and then cover it in plastic wrap or place it in an air-tight container in the fridge.

The main goal is to prevent oxygen from touching the avocado's flesh. Plastic wrap is a practical, albeit not foolproof way to slow down the natural course of fruit aging. The trick is to make sure the plastic wrap is sealed flush with the flesh.

“If you put your avocado in water, you're really just dropping it into a breeding ground for any bacteria that are present,” says Sedlacek. “This TikTok hack is a recipe for foodborne illness. It's very, very bad.”

Until they're fully ripe, avocados should be stored at room temperature. Placing an unripe avocado in the refrigerator will slow the ripening process, but the same concept applies to ripe avocados: put them in the refrigerator to keep them at their prime ripeness for longer.

This will speed things up by a day or two; you should have a ripe avocado in three to six days. Stashing the fruit in a paper bag keeps them warm and helps trap the ethylene gas. And yes, go for paper, not plastic. “The plastic will sweat and the fruit will sweat and the plastic will keep the moisture in,” says Shade.

Yes, you can freeze avocado but make sure you use ones that are just-ripe (not super soft). Scoop flesh from skin in chunks and arrange on a baking paper-lined tray. Freeze avos for about 30 minutes or until firm, then transfer to a freezer bag and expel air. You can keep avocados in the freezer for up to one month.

A perfectly ripe avocado is best eaten right away. If this is not possible, the best way to store ripe avocados is in the fridge for a maximum of 2 to 3 days. Any longer and the avocado may brown inside. Unripe avocados, on the other hand, can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Here's the trick for extending the life of your avocado:

The refrigerator magically slows down the ripening process and keeps it perfect, ready for whenever you're ready to eat it. I've gotten an avocado to last an additional 7 days, but I'd recommend eating them within about 5.

How to soften hard avocados quickly? ›

You know that thing about putting underripe fruit in a brown paper bag to make it ripen faster? Well, it actually works: Throw an unripe avocado into a paper bag with a ripe banana, fold down the opening, and leave it at room temperature on your countertop for a day or two to accelerate the avocado ripening process.

The bottom line: If you need your avocados to ripen sooner rather than later, keep them on the counter. Otherwise, for better quality, you're better off putting them in the fridge and allowing them to ripen slowly. In either case, store the ripened fruit in the fridge to extend shelf life.

If the avocado is not quite ripe and not hard, you can use plastic wrap and your microwave to ripen them up in two minutes flat. Cut the avocado in half vertically and remove the pit. Wrap each half in microwave-safe plastic wrap and microwave on high for two minutes.