Just when you thought food packaging couldn’t get more wasteful, along come pre-peeled, halved Hass avocados. Sealed in plastic and cardboard, the avocados sell for around $3 a piece. California-based Calavo Growers are peddling the fruit encased in packaging to whomever can’t take an extra two seconds to cut one open with a knife, and there’s no sign they plan to stop selling them.
No, Avocado Halves aren’t a prank, and no, they’re not Photoshopped. Twitter user Eric Huang posted a picture of the avocado halves, saying, “Lazy? Party of 1? Your #avocado is ready.” Even better evidence can be found right on Calavo’s website, where the company brags they sell “fresh refrigerated guacamole, avocado halves, and pulp” in “tubs, pails, pouches, canisters, singles, and easy squeeze options.” They also offer nutritional information for the avocado halves – which are packaged to not go brown but must be refrigerated – as well as information on how their products can possibly keep fresh for as long as 90 days via Ultra-High Pressure.
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Calavo says they place their products under about 87,000 psi of pressure with Ultra-High Pressure technology, a process that doesn’t require flavor-damaging heat and is better than cold pasteurization, according to the company.
Grocery stores say the avocados are intended for people who have trouble telling how ripe an avocado is – a problem, to be sure, but is it one that really needed to be solved with more waste? Each package of Calavo’s Avocado Halves contains a single avocado, that was once packaged in a perfectly good compostable, waste-free peel. Although consumers have complained – one wondered if it would take more time to open the packaging than to simply cut open the fruit – few grocery stores have shown signs of pulling the product from their shelves.
Via Gizmodo
Images via Eric Huang on Twitter and Pixabay
