How to choose the perfect pineapple: Customer shares little-known secret to picking a ripe fruit every time

It can often be difficult to determine if certain produce is ripe while browsing the fruit section at the supermarket.  

But now a customer has revealed a lesser-known way to pick perfectly ripe pineapple at the store every time.

Ava walked past the produce and slightly tugged on the leaves of different pineapples.  

On the third try, one of the leaves detached from the head of the fruit, signalling it’s ripe and ready to eat. 

‘If it pops out of the top like that, it’s ripe,’ she said in a now-viral TikTok video. If the leaves don’t detach instantly, it’s not ripe yet. 

The insight blew the minds of thousands online who were gobsmacked by the grocery hack.  

In the comments a produce store manager confirmed the method is the ‘correct way’ to determine if a pineapple is ripe or not.  

The short video has since exceeded more than 7.1million views.  

‘I was today years old when I learnt this,’ one wrote. 

‘Thank you. This is so much less embarrassing than smelling them,’ another wrote. 

‘I love learning random facts from this app,’ someone else added. 

A ripe pineapple will also tend to be yellow rather than green, will have a fruity aroma and will feel firm when squeezed. 

It comes as Australian author shared how to pick the perfect avocado before buying it.

Kim McCosker, author of the cookbook series Four Ingredients, said the checking the stem can help indicate how ripe the fruit is.

‘Avocados have stems and simply by peeling back the small stem can you can tell a lot about the fruit,’ she wrote on Instagram.

‘If the stem comes off easily and you see green, it’s PERFECT and ready to eat.’ 

But if the stem is ‘fussy’ and difficult to remove, it’s most likely unripe.

‘If the stem removes easily and reveals a darker coloured flesh, it’s likely over-ripe will be stringy and inedible,’ she said.

Kim has learnt everything she knows about fruit and vegetables from her dad who’s a farmer.

‘As a farmer’s daughter, I pride myself in knowing ‘stuff’ about fruits and veggies,’ she wrote.

‘For example, apples are 25 per cent air, strawberries have on average 200 seeds and pumpkins are 90 per cent water … but I never knew this.’

The clever insight was quickly praised by others on social media who had ‘no idea’ about the avocado hack. 

‘Wow. As a new avo eater thank you for all this info,’ one person wrote, another added: ”And I was today years old when I found this out! Thank you for sharing.’

Previously dietitian revealed three additional ways to prevent avocados from turning brown.

Rebecca Gawthorne, from Sydney, revealed you can use lemon, olive oil and even onion to stop the off-putting discolouration.

Sharing on her Nourish Naturally Instagram page the popular content maker told her fans to save the video for the next time they stock up on the fruit because the methods work so well.

‘The browning of an avocado is a natural chemical reaction called oxidisation that occurs when a cut avocado is exposed to oxygen in the air,’ she explained.

‘While it’s safe eat, brown avocados are not very aesthetically pleasing & can taste a bit bitter,’ she added.