Why You Should Skip Over Those Bags Of Oranges At Costco, According To Reddit

At first glance, the Costco produce section looks like paradise. It's a dizzying variety of fruits and vegetables displayed in boxes in a dedicated, chilled section. There's so much produce, in fact, that it spills out into the main shopping area: bins piled high with pineapples, cantaloupes sold in twos, and 6-count bags of avocados. And while you can get a lot of fruit for your buck at the popular membership store, Costco shoppers have some complaints about their produce.

Oranges, in particular, have sparked criticism so strong that shoppers have taken to Reddit to swap stories about them. Their experiences are almost identical: Shoppers buy a 10-pound bag of oranges at Costco for a great price, and they all turn moldy within days. It's a bad enough problem that Reddit shoppers advise avoiding Cara Cara oranges altogether. The low price tag is enticing, but unless you're making a pitcher of fresh-squeezed 2-ingredient mimosas, they'll go bad before you can eat them all. These oranges don't go moldy due to the sheer amount Costco sells you at one time, though. There's a deeper issue here, one that affects all the produce sold at Costco — and it has to do with how everything is shipped and stored.

Costco sells oranges at more than 900 warehouses worldwide. To keep all those produce sections stocked, the company sources its oranges from suppliers all over the globe. It's likely the oranges in those five and 10-pound bags came from the USA, Brazil, Chile, Australia, or South Africa, depending on season and availability. There's a complex web of procedures in place to ensure this fruit doesn't spoil before it arrives at your local Costco. But shipping takes time and the oranges you see for sale aren't freshly picked, which means they'll start to spoil as soon as they're removed from cold storage and placed on your kitchen counter.

Here's another secret: Once one orange starts to spoil, the whole lot goes. The high sugar content in oranges makes for a perfect mold-growing environment, so a single mold spore will contaminate an entire orange quickly. This spreads to other oranges just as fast, which is why your whole bag will go bad if there's one moldy orange hidden inside. Mold grows faster at room temperatures, so it can really take hold on your counter at room temperature. The best way to avoid mold growth on your oranges is to remove them from the container they came in as soon as you get home. Wash and dry them well before storing them to try and remove any mold spores that might be lingering. Otherwise, you may need to avoid buying oranges in bulk altogether.