That apple you just ate is probably 5 months to nearly a year old. In the US, apples are harvested from August to November. Apples that will sell by December go into regular refrigeration. These giant warehouses are kept at 34-38 degrees. Apples that will be sold later go to controlled atmosphere storage. They're stored at lower temperatures and oxygen levels. Oxygen levels are lowered to 2% (normal oxygen levels are around 21%).
But don't panic, Alisha Albinder a fourth-generation fruit grower says, "If it's handled and stored properly then it should taste the same as when it went in." Apples will lose a bit of acid in storage, but not much changes in its nutritional content.
justregistered4U on September 10th, 2017 at 20:11 UTC »
Those storage areas can be deadly to workers because of the low oxygen content.
"A farm manager has been jailed for the manslaughter of two workers who died after being sent into a nitrogen-filled store while holding their breath.
Scott Cain and Ashley Clarke suffocated in the apple container, where the oxygen level was 1%.
They were trying to retrieve apples for an agricultural competition."
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-33342930
Anthrazitpanda on September 10th, 2017 at 18:09 UTC »
We lived near the Dutch border in Germany and each week, my mum would go to the market and buy the cheapest apples. They were all shapes and sizes but they tasted the best, yet were the cheapest. I thought she bought these because we were poor ish, and while that was the reason, she also said those apples were "proper" apples, picked fresh and that's why they don't look perfect.
thxxx1337 on September 10th, 2017 at 16:17 UTC »
I'm going apple picking today. Last year the apples we picked sat in the crisper drawer for over 3 months before we used them and they were still perfect