When Hanoi woman, Đặng Thi Thọ, bought an apple to place on her family’s shrine during Tết this year, she was surprised to find it unspoiled 9 months after purchase, reports VN Express.
According to Tho, she picked up the apple at a local market in Hanoi in January. As no one in her family likes apples, she left it on the family’s shrine.
A few months after picking up the fruit at a local market, she went to remove it, but since it had not rotted, Tho decided to let it lie. Now, 9 months later, the skin has faded to a yellow hue but the fruit remains firm.
Upon hearing the news of this seemingly immortal apple, President of the Institute of National Food Safety Management, Phạm Xuân Đà, said that he had a similar experience a with an apple imported from China that has sat in his office for 5 months without showing signs of rotting.
Vice President of the Institute of National Food Safety Management, Lê Thị Hồng Thảo, said that in developed countries, apples are picked at a certain age and can stored for some time before their skin withers and then rots. “In contrast, apples, pears etc. from China can keep their skin intact but rot from the inside out,” she said.
There are currently 2,000 food preservatives on the market, but only 200 can be identified by Vietnamese food safety organizations, Thảo added.
All apples found at markets in Vietnam are imported, “as the weather and planting techniques in Vietnam cannot yet support the growing of temperate fruits,” said the Deputy Director of Planting Department of the Ministry of Agriculture. They recommended that buyers only buy apples with proper stamps that show they were grown in New Zealand, the US and Europe.
