18.4 Choosing, buying and storing fruit

What fruit gives you

Most fruit is very nutritious. It is mostly water, usually 75 to 95 percent, with little protein or fat, so it is low in calories. It is a fine source of fiber, and the sugar in ripe fruit gives energy. Citrus, melons and strawberries are rich in vitamin C, though cooking or processing can destroy it. Apricots, mangoes and kiwis, with their deep yellow or green color, give plenty of vitamin A, and bananas, raisins and figs give potassium.

Fresh fruit and its grades

"Fresh" means the fruit has not been canned, frozen or dried. It may be ripe or not, depending on when it was picked and how it was kept. To serve fruit well and at the right cost, think about four things when you buy:

• the size of each piece;
• its grade or quality;
• how ripe it is when it arrives;
• its food value.

In the United States, fresh fruit sold wholesale may be graded under a voluntary USDA program. There are four grades, best first:

• U.S. Fancy
• U.S. No. 1
• U.S. No. 2
• U.S. No. 3

The grades are based on size, even shape, color and texture, and on freedom from defects. Most fruit bought for food service is U.S. Fancy. Lower grades are fine for sauces, jams, jellies and preserves.

How fruit ripens

As a fruit ripens, it reaches full size, its flesh softens and its color changes. Its acid drops, so it tastes less sour, and its starch turns into the sugars fructose and glucose, which bring sweetness, flavor and aroma. These changes do not stop at the peak. They carry on, and the fruit's texture and flavor decline until it spoils.

So when you buy matters as much as what you buy:

• Some fruits, such as figs and pineapples, ripen only on the plant. Buy them ripe; picked early, they never reach full flavor or texture.
• Others, such as bananas and pears, keep ripening after picking, so you can buy them unripe.
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• Cold slows ripening. Fruit breathes, taking in oxygen and giving off carbon dioxide; chilling slows that breathing, and so slows the change from starch to sugar. Warmth speeds it up.
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• Ripening fruit gives off ethylene, a gas with no color or smell, and ethylene makes most fruit ripen faster. The biggest sources are apples, tomatoes, melons and bananas, so keep them away from delicate fruit and vegetables, greens above all. Fruit picked unripe for shipping may be given ethylene to ripen it just before sale.
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• To make ripe fruit last a day or two longer, keep it apart from other fruit and well chilled.
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• Cooked or processed fruit does not ripen any further, though cooking may soften it or add flavor.

Buying by the case

Fresh fruit is sold by weight or by count, in crates, bushels, cartons, cases, lugs or flats. How much a container holds depends on the fruit, the supplier and where it was packed; Texas citrus, for example, comes in cartons holding 7/10 of a bushel. Sometimes you must state the size of the fruit: a 30-pound case of lemons may hold 96, 112 or 144 lemons, depending on how big they are.

Some fruit, especially melons, pineapples, peaches and berries, can be bought already trimmed, cleaned, peeled or cut, sometimes with sugar or preservatives, in bulk containers. It is consistent and saves a lot of labor, but it may cost more than whole fruit, and the processing can take something from its flavor, freshness and food value.

Storing fresh fruit

The general rules for the refrigerator, the freezer, the dry store and stock rotation are in the food safety chapter. see chapter 2: Why storage matters

Most produce is refrigerated between 2 and 4°C (36 and 39°F), though bananas are one of the exceptions. These storage rules apply to fruit:

• Do not keep soft fruit long. Buy it as you need it and hold very little.
• Unripe fruit ripens in a storeroom at 10 to 15°C (50 to 59°F), and much more slowly in the refrigerator. To make fruit ripen faster, keep it at room temperature.
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• Bananas turn black quickly in the refrigerator, so keep them at 10 to 15°C (50 to 59°F).
• Take rotting fruit out of the case before storing and whenever you rotate stock. One bad piece can set off a chain reaction that spoils a whole case.
• Signs that fruit is going off: it softens, darkens and soon rots, and mold may appear. Mold shows as blue-green, hair-like growth and likes fruit kept warm, dark and a little damp. Yeasts make fruit ferment by turning its sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Preserved fruit

Preserving keeps fruit in nearly fresh form for longer. The methods are irradiation, acidulation, canning, freezing and drying. All but drying leave the texture and flavor much as they were. Cooked fruit can also be canned or frozen.

Irradiated fruit has been treated with ionizing radiation to kill parasites, insects and bacteria. It also ripens more slowly, with no clear change to flavor or texture. Such fruit must be labeled "treated with radiation" or "treated by irradiation", or carry the right symbol.

Acidulation slows browning. Cut apples, pears, bananas and peaches turn brown. People blame the air, but the cause is a reaction driven by enzymes, called enzymatic browning. Dipping the cut fruit in an acid juice, such as lemon or orange, holds it back. Do not soak fruit in water or in water with lemon juice (acidulated water): without enough salt or sugar the fruit goes mushy, and with enough, the flavor changes.

Canned fruit. Almost any fruit cans well; pineapple and peaches sell the most. The fruit is sealed in a can and heated for a set time. The heat kills spoilage microbes and softens most fruit, and the sealed can keeps air out. Because no oxygen is present during heating, canning does little to vitamins A, B, C and D. Know the pack you are buying:

• Solid pack: little or no water added; the only liquid is the fruit's own juice.
• Water pack: water or juice added, which you must allow for when working out cost.
• Syrup pack: light, medium or heavy sugar syrup added; allow for it in the cost, and for the extra sweetness in the recipe.

Once a can is opened, move what is left into a proper storage container and refrigerate it. Open and throw away any can that bulges. Opened cans of food such as meat and vegetables count as potentially hazardous foods, along with any fruit that has been cooked or heat-treated.

Frozen fruit. Freezing stops most of the microbes that spoil fruit and keeps the nutrients. Because fruit is so watery, though, ice crystals form and burst the cell walls, which can change how it looks and feels. Quick freezing makes fewer crystals. Much fruit, especially berries and apple and pear slices, is now IQF, individually quick-frozen, using blasts of cold air, cold plates, liquid nitrogen or similar. Berries are frozen whole; stone fruits are generally peeled, stoned and cut into slices first. Fruit also comes frozen in sugar syrup, which adds flavor and stops browning, and as frozen purée.

In the United States, frozen fruit has three grades. The top is U.S. Grade A, also called Fancy. Next is U.S. Grade B, called Choice or Extra Standard. Last is U.S. Grade C, called Standard. Packers may use a grade name without an inspection if the fruit meets that grade's standard.

Storing frozen fruit:

• Store frozen food at −18°C (0°F) or colder.
• Fruit that arrives frozen keeps for months if it is well wrapped.
• The wrapping should be moisture-proof and the temperature steady, because ups and downs cause freezer burn.
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• Freezing fresh fruit in your own kitchen takes time and may cost too much, and fruit not properly prepared for the freezer keeps badly.
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Do not thaw frozen blueberries or blackberries before you fold them into a batter. Their juice runs and stains the batter.

Dried fruit. Drying is the oldest way of keeping fruit, used for more than 5000 years. Taking out most of the water concentrates the flavor and sugar and makes the fruit keep much longer. The fruits dried most often are apricots, figs, plums (as prunes) and grapes (as raisins, sultanas and currants). Fruit may be dried slowly in the sun or quickly in hot, dry air. It keeps 16 to 26 percent of its moisture, which is why it stays soft, and it is often treated with sulfur dioxide to stop browning and make it last longer.

Eat dried fruit as it is, add it to cereals and salads, bake it into muffins, breads, pies and tarts, stew it for chutneys and compotes, or use it to stuff roast meat and poultry. To soften it, steep it for a short while in something hot: water, wine, rum or brandy; some kinds should be simmered in a little water. Store dried fruit in airtight containers somewhere dry and cool, out of the sun. Air and damp together can make it go moldy.

Juice

Juice is a drink on its own, a mixer, and the liquid in many recipes. There are two ways to get it out. Juicy fruit such as citrus is pressed, by hand or with a reamer, a ridged cone pushed against the cut fruit. Less juicy fruit and vegetables, such as apples, carrots and beets, go through a blender or an electric extractor, which grinds the fruit and spins the juice away from the pulp. Strain all juice to take out seeds, pulp and fiber.

Mixed juices can be very good. Try orange with pineapple or papaya, cranberry with apple, or tangerine with strawberry. Watch the color, though. Yellow and orange juices mix safely, but juices with red and blue pigments, called flavonoids, from Concord grapes, cherries, strawberries, raspberries or blueberries, can turn an ugly color. A little lemon juice keeps the reds and blues true.