Apples are hardy fruits that often seem to last forever in the fruit bowl, but if you’ve recently grabbed one and found it has become wrinkled, you might feel uncertain about consuming it. Pretty much all apples will wrinkle if they are left for too long after being picked.
Slightly wrinkly apples tend to be safe to eat, but a heavily wrinkled apple may not be. The wrinkling shows that the fruit will have lost a lot of moisture, and it also indicates that the apple is starting to decay. You are more likely to see bruises, spots of mold, and juices leaking out of the fruit.
In this article, we’ll check how safe wrinkled apples are to eat. We will also cover how to use up apples that are still safe but have gone past their best, so you don’t have to waste these fruits.
Are Wrinkled Apples Safe To Eat?
On the whole, a slightly wrinkled apple should still be safe to eat, but you will need to use it up very soon. If you don’t, the apple will go off, and could give you a stomach ache, diarrhea, nausea, or worse. You should check for a few other signs that the apple is okay before you decide to consume it, including:
- How firm the flesh is: it should be reasonably firm, not mushy
- How much bruising there is: there should be few, if any, bruises
- Whether it smells fresh, or has a fermented scent: it should smell fresh
- Whether it tastes okay: if it has an alcoholic or unpleasant flavor, you need to spit out the bit you have tasted, and throw the rest in your compost bin
A small amount of wrinkling isn’t generally a problem. It simply indicates that the apple has lost some of its juiciness and may not be as enjoyable anymore – but it should still be safe. However, if the wrinkling is pronounced and there is a lot of it, you will need to throw the apple away, rather than consume it.
People have eaten wrinkled apples for many years, and prior to refrigerators and international food transport, apples were often stored for months on racks so that they could be enjoyed long after the season had finished. However, you do still need to treat apples with some degree of caution, and avoid fruits that are very wrinkly.
How Can You Use Up Wrinkled Apples?
One of the biggest problems with wrinkled apples is that they don’t have a very good texture. They are often dry, mealy, and unpleasant, because a lot of the moisture will have gone out of them. This may cause mushiness, and sometimes excessive sweetness. Even if the apple is still safe, you may find that you don’t enjoy it much.
Fortunately, though, there are lots of things that you can do with wrinkled apples that are still edible. They are generally best used in cooking, as this will break them down and disguise the more challenging texture. A lot of people enjoy baked apples, and you can also use apples in oatmeal, granola bars, purees, apple sauce, apple chutney, and a whole lot more.
Alternatively, consider putting the apples in a smoothie. This will perfectly conceal the unpleasant texture, and can also make the sweetness a benefit instead of a drawback. Toss in some bananas and other fruit, and you’ll have a delicious drink instead of wasting the apple.
However, before you use up a wrinkled apple, you should check through the list mentioned above, and make sure that the apple is safe to consume. If it is not, don’t try to use it in cooking or a smoothie; discard it rather than risk making yourself sick.
Why Do Apples Wrinkle?
Whenever you store apples, they gradually lose moisture to the surrounding environment. They have tough skins that don’t allow for much moisture transfer, meaning that this process is very slow. Apples can therefore stay good for a long time, even when they are stored at room temperature.
That said, the moisture loss is still ongoing, and as it gets more and more pronounced, the apple will shrink. This leaves the skin of the fruit too large for the contents, and so the skin starts to fold up, forming wrinkles.
Wrinkling is always a sign that the apple has been stored for a while, so if you notice an apple in your fruit bowl is starting to shrink, you need to make sure you use it up quickly, or it will get wasted.
Conclusion
Wrinkled apples are generally safe to eat as long as the wrinkling is minor and the fruit is still firm. However, if the fruit feels mushy, has large bruises, or smells strange when you pick it up, it needs to be thrown away.
