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Here's a watermelon even Gallagher might have avoided.
Melon enthusiasts (that's a thing) are reporting that their melons are foaming from one or both sides (which isn't entirely out of the ordinary).
The Bangor Daily News reports that bacteria can be introduced into a watermelon while growing on the vine - and that bacteria combines with the sugars and yeast inside the melon and start the fermentation process. The foam — which seeps out of the melon through cracks in the rind — is a sign that fermentation is happening.
Now enter HOTTER temperatures... like the ones we've been experiencing this year.
These high temps speed up this process or make it more prevalent, and that’s what’s happening this year. In the United States, watermelons are primarily grown here in California, plus Arizona, Delaware, Florida, and Texas, and all of those states have seen higher-than-average temperatures.
“There have been increases in hot weather in those parts of the country,” Kathy Savoie, professor, and food safety expert at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, told the Bangor Daily News. “Fruits have a natural sugar called fructose, and under extended and undesirable storage conditions, it will ferment.”
The foaming could become a real issue... because the fermentation process produces gas, all of that internal pressure can cause the watermelon to explode — and even cutting into a watermelon that has started fermenting could be unsafe.
Because of that, Savoie says a foaming watermelon should be removed from the home as soon as possible.
Read more here.
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