Choosing the Best Quality Fruit for your Table

You are in the grocery store, and surround by piles of green apples, brown pears, purple grapes, deep red cherries, lime-coloured grapefruits, black avocados, and so many others. The supermarket has no distinction between bruised or overripe fruit, under-ripe fruit, or those that are just perfect. They have travelled for miles and miles, they could be at their prime, or way past it. Here are some tips for picking out he freshest and juiciest - and therefore tastiest and most healthy - items of fruit.

Apples

Firm apples with bright colour are best. Immature apples are poor in colour and flavour and shrivel after storage. Brown-tinted, irregular patches on the surface are called scald, and caused by gases given off by the apples during storage. If they are small, they won't affect the taste very much.

Apricots

Are usually picked slightly immature, so that they may ripen during shipping. The best quality, tree-ripened apricost can only be found near the growing area. It is best to select plump, firm, uniformly coloured fruit; immature fruit is greenish-yellow, hard and slightly shriveled, and lacks flavour.

Avocados

So tasty when perfectly ripe, so hard to tell from the outside! Shape, size and skin do not affect quality; brown scaly markings on skin do not indicate rotton flesh on the inside. The best way to tell is to pick ones with deep glossy colour, and firm but slightly soft, with no dark, sunken spots - these indicate decay on the inside.

Bananas

These actually have the best flavour if they are harvested green, so shipped bananas can be as good as ones near the growing area. It is best to buy full-ripe or yellow-ripe fruit, which can stand a few days at home before eating. Avoid soft, mushy fruit, blackened areas or mould.

Cherries

Your selection should depend on the use for which you are purchasing the cherries. Select sweet cherries for raw eating, and tart ones should be chosen for cooking. The usual applies, the best, ripe fruit is plump, glossy and bright; unripe is small, hard, poorly coloured and usually very acidic; overipe fruit is soft, dull shriveled and leaky.

Grapefruit

Russet on the fruit does not affect flavour. They should be firm and springy, not soft and flabby, and should be heavy for their size. Decay is indicated by soft discoloured area at the button end.

Limes

Select green, heavy fruit. Surface blemishes do not indicate poor quality. Avoid yellowish fruit, these will not be acidic enough for most recipes.

Oranges

The best ones are firm and heavy. Surface blemishes do not affect flesh quality. Bad fruit will be light coloured, puffy, and have badly creased skin.

Pineapples

These are also meant to be picked in a slightly unripe state. They ripen during shipping, and ripeness is indicated by a dark yellow-orange colour, a fragrant odour and flat eyes on the skin. Fruit should be relatively heavy for its size. If picked too early, however, fruit iwll not ripen, will be dull and lifeless coloured, often yellow, and have pointed eyes. If left for too long without eating, fruit loses moisture, shrinks in size, and darkens.

Cantaloupes

Check the stem end; if the scar there is slightly sunken and calloused, then it is truly ripe - do not check for softening in the area, as this can be produced by repeated pushing even on unripe fruits. Netting should be course, corky and greyish. Pronounced yellowing indicates over-ripeness, and sunken spots, mould or moisture at the stem end indicte decay.