Have you ever wondered if these "fresh" fruits might be "fake"? How can we tell them apart?
Lychee: Soaked in Acid to Look Fresh
The method: Since lychees have a short shelf life, vendors often buy unripe or semi-ripe green lychees. They soak them in diluted hydrochloric acid or spray a diluted solution on the surface. This causes the unripe peel to turn red and appear fresh.
How to Identify
Touch: When picking "makeup" lychees, your hand may feel damp and warm, or even have a burning sensation.
Smell: Naturally ripened lychees have a faint, natural lychee fragrance. "Makeup" lychees, however, have no fragrance and may smell sour or even of chemicals.
Heft: "Makeup" lychees feel heavier than naturally ripened ones.
Look: Because fresh lychees spoil quickly, they are typically stored in refrigeration. If you see lychees casually placed in a box and just covered with a plastic sheet, they are likely "problem" lychees.
Banana: Treated with Chemicals to Turn Yellow
The method: Bananas that are 70% ripe are coated with a ripening agent containing sulfur dioxide. In a day or two, they turn into bright yellow, fresh-looking premium fruit. Alternatively, formaldehyde gas is injected into the boxes of bananas, and their peels turn yellow in a few days.
How to Identify
Look: Ripened bananas usually don't have the sign of full ripeness—the "plum blossom spots." Therefore, bananas with these spots are relatively safer to choose.
Smell: Bananas ripened with chemicals will have a chemical smell.
Taste: Naturally ripened bananas ripen evenly; it's not just the peel that turns yellow, but the flesh is also soft. Chemically ripened bananas, however, have a hard core.
Orange: Dyed to Look Red
The method: Oranges with mold spots are cleaned, dried, and then polished and colored with paraffin wax. In an instant, the dull, moldy oranges become bright red. With an "imported fruit" label, they are sold as imported oranges.
How to Identify
Look: Imported oranges have more lenticels (pores) on their peel, which feels rougher. Fake imported oranges have fewer lenticels and feel relatively smoother.
Wipe: When you wipe a fake imported orange with a paper towel, the paper will turn red because dyes were added during the processing.
Watermelon: Injected with Sugar Water to Taste Sweet
The method: For semi-ripe watermelons, a mixture of coloring and saccharin is injected from the stem end. This dyes the flesh red and makes it taste very sweet.
How to Identify
Tap: A watermelon that has been injected will produce a dull, crisp sound when tapped.
Look: The seeds of a naturally ripe watermelon are black and full. Injected watermelons usually have small, white seeds.
Taste: Although injected watermelons are sweet, the sweetness is uneven. The area near the stem is often very sweet, while the area farther away is much less so.