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Q: Apple turning brown shortly after eating?
Alright this is likely a super stupid question, but with all these food safety problems going on, one can never be too sure.
Red apples...I love them, only I've noticed that here in Beijing perhaps only a few minutes after my first bite (if even that), the flesh of the apple very quickly turns to a sickly brownish color. Does this mean the apple isn't high quality? Or that they used lots of pesticides?
It means that it's been sitting on the shelf for quite sometime. A lot of the apples that I picked out weren't fresh either. I don't know how they turn brown in a second that sounds kind of weird though.
Tapwater:
What Mattaya said. It is because the apples aren't fresh.
You're right to be concerned about the quality of the apples. Apples can contain high levels of arsenic, iirc. But you're more likely to be poisoned drinking juice than fresh fruit. Juice concentrates any impurities to several times the strength you'd find in fresh fruit.
Well, the browning comes from oxidation, basically from exposing it to the air. If you're eating a red apple, I'm going to assume it's a red delicious (they seem to be popular), and I found an article that says they brown the most. This article http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryfaqs/f/brownapplefaq.htm says that even the quality of knife can affect how quickly it turns brown. You can look up ways to prevent it if you don't like the color. One way is to sprinkle lemon juice on it.
Let me see how I can explain this. If you take a bite of an apple, and immediately the white pulp inside that you can now see turns brown like in a flash, I would not take a second bite into it.
Now, if you do take a bite, and as you are chewing on it slowly some small areas of the white begins to turn brownish, that is normal, as Jnusb said it is oxidation.
Also, I will not eat any fruit that I do not was first. After I arrive home from the market, I submerge all fruits in my sink full of water, and let then sit there for 15 or 20 minutes. Then, taking each one on my hands and under running water, I rub the surface with my fingers. That should get rid of all pesticide residues on the peel. After they dried, I will place them in a fruit basket I have. Before eating any, they get a quick wash under running water again, to remove any dust, etc.
This was instituted by my GF, who is a health nut. I got used to it, and it is done automatically after a few visits to nearby farms and see their liberal use of pesticides.
It is enzymic browning resulting from oxidation. It will happen to most fruits or vegetables that are exposed to oxygen. Most commonly, sliced potatoes will do the same if not submerged in water.
