If you like to start your day with a helping of fresh grapefruit or grapefruit juice, make sure you choose fruit at its peak to ensure maximum freshness and shelf life. Pick up each grapefruit and evaluate its colour, plumpness and shape before heading to the cashier and you'll avoid buying overripe fruit.

  • If you like to start your day with a helping of fresh grapefruit or grapefruit juice, make sure you choose fruit at its peak to ensure maximum freshness and shelf life.
  • Pick up each grapefruit and evaluate its colour, plumpness and shape before heading to the cashier and you'll avoid buying overripe fruit.

Push gently with your thumb on the grapefruit's skin. Notice whether it feels mushy or plump. Remove your thumb and notice whether the skin bounces back to its original position. Bad grapefruit easily yields to pressure and takes longer to return to its original shape once the pressure is removed than good fruit.

Evaluate the colour of the grapefruit's skin. Bad grapefruit may be dark and dull with brown spots, while ripe grapefruit has a vibrant, consistent colour.

Look at the stem end of the grapefruit for water-soaked areas. This may indicate the juice is leaking from the grapefruit and it has gone bad.

Other signs of bad grapefruit include fuzzy, whitish or grey-green mould forming on the skin or a foul odour from the fruit.