Wondering if the raspberries you have sitting in your fridge right now have gone bad? Read below what signs you should look for to tell if you should eat them or toss them out.
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Did you buy raspberries at the grocery store and they have been in your fridge for a few days? Now you are not sure if they are still good to eat.
Let's examine your package of raspberries together to see if we can tell if they are bad or can still be saved.
Jump to:
🍄 Moldy
Mold means they need to go to the trash. No doubt. Raspberries are like a piece of cheese where you could potentially cut off mold. Any mold in the package and I would throw the whole package out. Yes it's sad, but better safe than sorry.
With strawberries, if I see one moldy berry in the bottom corner of a package, I usually will just toss that one, maybe a few around in. But raspberries are such a soft fruit that it's really hard to do that with confidence.
The mold usually looks like a gray and white fuzz. Sometimes parts of the raspberry have some white on them that is just a discoloration in the fruit itself. That isn't harmful, just something that occurred when the berries were growing.
Verdict - Throw them out!
🧸 Mushy
Raspberries are pretty fragile. They don't have a skin like a blueberry to protect them. So they can easily be smashed or mushed. Can you eat them still if they are mushy?
First, give them a look over for any mold or if they smell fermented. If you don't observe anything else and you just recently bought the raspberries then I think they are safe to eat.
Raspberries should be eaten as soon as you can when you bring them home. This is especially true if you bought them from a farm or picked them yourself. The large commercial operations tend to grow berries that ship well and may not be the best flavor, but last longer.
You can always make jam or a sauce with them before they go bad if a lot of them are getting mushy. They are basically telling you to do that! If I see my raspberries are about out of time, I get myself some high quality vanilla ice cream and eat the berries on top of that. Yogurt is good too.
Verdict - Eat them immediately as long as you don't observe anything else wrong with them.
🦨 Bad Odor
They should never smell bad. You should have to get your nose close to them to smell anything. If you find the smell unpleasant, then don't eat the berries.
Verdict - Throw them out!
🔴 Dark Color
Is color at all an indication of whether a raspberry is bad or not? The fruit may darken some as it gets older, but I don't consider them a sign of being bad. I prefer to buy darker red raspberries in the store as the lighter red ones were normally picked too soon, which makes them easier to ship but not as tasty.
However there are different colors of raspberries from black raspberries to light pink Rose raspberries that are naturally a lighter color. Yellow raspberries can be found sometime as well. Really you should leave color out as a factor of whether or not your raspberries are bad.
RELATED - The Difference Between Black Raspberries and Blackberries
📦 Storing Raspberries
Always store your raspberries in the fridge until you are ready to eat them. Make sure you keep them away from any raw meat you may have in your fridge.
Ask yourself if any part of your fridge tends to run cold? In my RV fridge, I have placed lettuce and fruit on the top shelf and it has gotten frozen. Now frozen berries aren't a bad thing (frozen lettuce is), but if that wasn't your intend then it can be disappointing. You can still eat them but the texture will be softer.
To avoid issues with your fridge freezing foods you don't want frozen, I suggest getting a quality fridge thermometer. The one I use is called the SPOT from ThermoWorks. It's small so it won't take up much space and it gives an accurate reading.
Also it's important to just keep your raspberries in the container you bought them in. Make sure if you brought them home wrapped in a plastic bag for transportation, you take them out of the bag immediately. You want to handle them as little as possible.
🌙 Left Out Overnight
So what if you used some of your raspberries in the evening and then left them out overnight? Or in the morning for smoothie and left the rest on the counter. They aren't bad unless you find mold on them. They won't last as long now but you certainly don't have to throw them out. Put back in the fridge and plan to use ASAP.
🧼 Washing Berries
It's always a good idea to get your berries a rinse before eating. Make sure your water is very gentle, these berries are soft. And never wash raspberries and then place them back in the fridge. Washed raspberries should be consumed on the spot or you are just asking for mold.
🚶🏻 Wild Raspberries
If you find some wild raspberries to pick when you are on a hike, those are a real treat. They usually don't last very long, so I would eat them right out in the field or the next day if you refrigerate them.
Learn all about When Black Raspberries are in Season.
➕ More Toss or Keep Posts
I love to help people in their decision making process on whether to toss or keep fruits and vegetables. Last summer I did a post on How to Tell When Peaches are Bad. You can find other posts from our series below. The posts with a (🎧) next to them means you can listen to that post as a podcast episode if you like.
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