Kiwi fruit is delicious, and nutritious and can be expensive depending on where you live. We’ll show you how to store kiwi properly to reduce household food waste.
Not everyone is familiar with the kiwi fruit, so if you’re looking to include more of it in your diet, it’s important to know how to determine their ripeness and how to store kiwis properly to maintain their freshness.
Sometimes known as Chinese Gooseberry, kiwi fruit is packed full of vitamins and minerals and is one of the most delicious fruits you can indulge in. The common kiwi fruit is slightly oval-shaped with fuzzy skin on the outside and lovely green flesh flecked with black seeds inside. Occasionally you might be able to find kiwis with a more purple or even golden flesh as well as the delightful bite-sized variety known as ‘kiwi berries’. Wondering how to store kiwi? Learn more below.
What To Look For When Buying Kiwi Fruit
When buying fresh kiwi fruit, you will need to keep four things in mind.
1. Texture
Kiwis have firm, smooth-looking skin that actually feels a little rough when touched. This is perfectly normal, but if you come across kiwi fruit that is really wrinkly and/or mushy to the touch, you can assume the kiwi has lost much of its natural moisture and will therefore lack some taste and nutritional benefits.
2. Blemishing
Give the kiwi fruit a quick inspection, using your hands and fingers to find any bad blemishes or bruising. Most of the time, a few bruises here and there won’t affect the overall quality of the fruit. But, if you come across larger dark, mushy areas, it is likely the kiwi is well past its ripeness and will lack the juicy texture and flavor you really want.
3. Timing
If you want to eat your kiwi fruit right away, try to find the ones that are ripe. If you press lightly against the center of the kiwi, a ripe one will always feel soft and will give ever so slightly. On the other hand, if you squeeze the kiwi and find it hard and firm, it is unripe and will need two or three more days to ripen properly. A really soft and mushy kiwi means it’s overripe and should be used up immediately.
4. Smell
Like most fruits, a nice and ripe kiwi will have a pleasantly fresh, fruity scent, whereas overripe kiwis will exude a slightly acidic smell to them.
How to Store Kiwi: Simple Tips
How to store kiwi fruit really depends on how ripe, unripe, or overripe it actually is. In any case, there is a solution for every scenario and moreover, the solutions are super easy.
Storing Ripe Kiwi
If you’ve managed to pick up some perfectly ripe kiwis at the store, your kiwi will still need some extra care when it comes to storing them. If you leave a ripe kiwi out at room temperature, it will keep ripening until it spoils. To halt this process, place them in the fridge in an airtight container. In this manner, you can store kiwi fruit for about 5 to 10 days while retaining freshness.
Storing Unripe Kiwi
Most of the time when shopping for kiwi, you are going to encounter kiwi fruit that still has a ways to go before ripening if not rock hard. Kiwi growers and suppliers will always account for the time the fruit will take to get from the farm to the market, where the fruit can then spend a few days in the produce aisle before someone actually buys them. In other words, fresh produce is usually harvested well ahead of its peak ripeness.
To aid in the ripening process all you need do is keep kiwi fruit on the kitchen counter or alternatively place it in a plastic bag and store them in the refrigerator. If left a room temperature, most unripe kiwi fruit will be ripe and ready to eat after 4 or 5 days.
When storing them in the fridge, the bag aids in preventing moisture loss, so you will need to check for any excess condensation inside the bag and wipe this off as it can lead to mold forming. When stored in this fashion, unripe kiwi fruit can easily last for up to a month without losing its flavor and freshness.
Freezing Kiwi
When it storing anything for a long time, the freezer is obviously your best friend. Did you know you can freeze kiwi? You can choose to freeze your kiwi fruit whole or slice it. When freezing kiwi whole, always remove the skin first, this will make life easier when you thaw it out later on, saving you the hassle of trying to peel a very soft kiwi fruit. Take your whole peeled kiwi fruit and place it in a reusable, resealable bag to avoid freezer burn.
For added convenience later on, you might decide to cut your kiwi into slices before freezing, which is ideal if you plan on using kiwi fruit for juices and breakfast smoothies. Just peel the skin first then cut it into slices. A neat trick is to place the slices on a baking sheet and place it flat in the freezer so the kiwi pieces will freeze as single pieces as opposed to them all sticking together. Once frozen, you can then take the slices and place them in a freezer bag or airtight container and use as much or as little as needed.
Kiwi fruit will last in the freezer for up to a year. Keep in mind that once thawed, kiwi fruit will be much softer in texture which is not ideal for a fruit salad, but just perfect for smoothies, green juices, and dessert toppings.
Read more:
- How to Store Apples: Easy Ways to Keep Them Fresh
- Does Fruit Have Protein? 12 High-Protein Fruits
- How to Store Blueberries to Keep them Fresh
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