This Machine Checks if Avocados Are Ripe Without Squeezing Them

Avocados are the perfect match for toast or tortilla chips—when they’re ripe, that is. The fruits are notorious for either being too hard or too mushy, with the perfect window of edibility ending almost as soon as it comes. Some grocery stores in Europe are making avocado shopping easier with dedicated scanners that detect the ripeness of the produce. 

1. Shopping for Avocados Just Got Easier

Shopping for Avocados Just Got Easier

As Food & Wine reports, the food waste company OneThird is behind the devices. The avocado scanner works by first scanning the fruit with light to examine its molecular composition and structure. The machine then compares the collected information against its database of various stages of avocado ripeness to determine the condition of the scanned item. With this shelf-life prediction technology, consumers can be more confident about the state of their avocados without squeezing them.

In turn, avocado bruising, damage, and waste are reduced while preserving fruit quality. The scanners are being tested at five Tesco locations in the UK, and they’re already in use at other supermarkets around Europe, including Jumbo Ranst and Veurne in Belgium and K-Citymarket in Finland. The latter has seen promising results since the machine was installed last year. As the owner told OneThird, “We[‘ve seen] an increase in sales of the most sold individual avocados and the whole segment. During the last 9-week period, waste in the segment went down.”

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If you don’t have access to these machines, don’t worry; you can still determine your avocado’s ripeness by checking its skin, stem, and firmness. Hass avocados (the most common type) are usually dark green, bumpy, and only slightly soft. Their stems should also come off easily and have a bright green or yellow color underneath.