Research aims to deliver bruise-free avocados

Bruises on avocados can continue to grow and intensify for up to 96 hours after the damage is done, a University of Queensland researcher has found. This would explain why the seemingly perfect avocado you pick up from the fruit shop turns to brown mush after just a few days in the fruit bowl.

PhD student Muhammad Sohail Mazhar is leading a project that he hopes will ultimately reduce consumer disappointment with bruised fruit and benefit the industry with higher sales.

One in three avocados is a disappointment, consumers have reported. If they had more confidence in the product, they would happily buy more, they say.

Mazhar has discovered that most flesh bruising occurs at the retail store. “This was established by using a magnetic resonance imaging machine at UQ’s Centre for Advanced Imaging to examine the bruised flesh of whole avocados over time,” Mazhar said.

“The next stage of my doctorate will look carefully at shoppers’ and consumers’ contributions to bruising the avocado fruit in the retail store and at home, and also into methods to reduce this occurring.”

According to UQ Professor Daryl Joyce, the solution may be ‘decision-aid tools’ and education initiatives to help shoppers choose fruit in the store. “Precise firmness-testing machines for avocados already exist in laboratories,” Professor Joyce said.

“If we could adapt such devices for use in supermarkets, shoppers could learn how many days away the piece of fruit is from being ready to eat, without them having to squeeze it.

“A cost-effective firmness-testing device - combined with educating store staff, shoppers and consumers - could well be the answer to giving us many more bruise-free avocados.”

Mazhar’s research is part of a joint initiative between the University of Queensland’s School of Agriculture and Food Sciences and the Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

The research is funded by Horticulture Australia Limited, using the Avocados Australia levy and matched funds from the Australian Government.