Mandarins or clementines find enthusiastic buyers in winter.
However, accessing the internet quickly leads to negative business for health and wallet.
If you don't look carefully enough when reaching for the tangerine net, an unpleasant surprise often awaits you at home: one or more of the fruits are moldy or crushed.
This can not only have health consequences with regard to the other fruits, the bottom line is that you also pay in terms of costs.
Tangerine online: Often moldy and a cost trap
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Anyone who buys citrus fruits such as tangerines or oranges online often comes across an unpleasant surprise.
© blickwinkel/Imago
The citrus fruit is usually cheaper online than loose goods.
But if you assume that you throw away some of the fruit, the cost-benefit ratio changes.
Even those who don't take it lightly with food waste feel uncomfortable disposing of useless tangerines.
A particularly crucial point, rather not resorting to a whole net, is health: Even if you have thrown away the fruit affected by mold and can no longer see anything with the naked eye, that does not mean that the remaining fruit is in perfect condition.
Heiko Griguhn, nutritionist and advisor to the German Society for Nutrition, explains to
Spiegel.de
: "Mold spores are easily transferable and surrounding fruits can already be infested.
The invisible root network could also have grown into other fruits.”
Moldy specimens quickly become mushy and the escaping juice and thus the mold migrates to other fruits.
In the net, the fruits often lie on top of each other, so that bruises develop even more quickly.
In case of doubt, this means: It is better to throw away all the fruit, at least if you belong to a risk group such as small children, pregnant women or the elderly, or if you have a weakened immune system.
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Keep your eyes open when buying citrus fruit
Organic fruits are both a curse and a blessing here, says
Deutschlandfunk Nova
: On the one hand, they tend to mold or rot more quickly because their skin is not treated with preservatives.
On the other hand, conventional fruits usually contain pesticides and residues that make enjoying them an unhealthy pleasure.
Therefore, you should definitely wash the latter before consumption.
The next time you buy citrus fruits such as tangerines or clementines, it is best to check very carefully whether all the fruits are okay and choose heavy rather than light fruits - and a fresh green leaf is best.
And if you have the choice, go for loose goods.
If you buy fruit online, you should carefully transport it home in the shopping bag on top and store it next to each other.
Except for oranges, which tolerate more cold, a dry, bright place with a cooler room temperature is recommended.
List of rubrics: © blickwinkel/Imago
