image source: dailyfactsandinformation

The first Oranges were not ORANGE.

Oranges were not named for their color, because their color often wasn’t orange. Find out how they get their brilliant hue, why many ripe oranges need to be dyed, and why nothing within the world is what u think it is.

      While the name origins of the many fruits are a mystery, the orange looks like a no brainer. It was named for it color. Actually, use of the word ‘orange’ to explain a cross between red and yellow wasn’t recorded until 300 years after the fruit appeared in Europe. It’s thought that oranges get their name from the Sanskrit word for fragrant – naranja. And although the flesh of oranges does flare a tasty-looking orange, the skin of the many oranges, especially within the ones in warmer countries, is green.

       Many fruits are picked while they’re still a touch green and left to ripen during transport, within the store, or simply become hard little fruit-bombs during a bowl in peoples’ homes. Most green oranges, on the opposite hand, are perfectly ripe. By the time they turn orange they’re sliding downhill towards rot. The green skin of an orange isn’t indicating that not enough of its natural color is coming through. It’s just pumped full of chlorophyll. In warm, sunny countries, that chlorophyll stays within the fruit. It’s only the fruit is exposed to cold that the chlorophyll dies off and therefore the orange color shines through.

         In South American countries and tropical countries near the equator, oranges stay green all year around. In the US, oranges grown in early spring or ones that are grown in late fall turn orange naturally. Ones that only see the peak of summer are usually green. To make it even more frustrating for farmers, oranges that have killed off their chlorophyll can green up once more by sucking the chlorophyll out of the leaves around them like small, tasty vampires.

         Since most of the people associate green fruit with unripe fruit, most green oranges within the US and Europe need to be colored to be sellable. In some cases they are exposed to ethylene gas, which breaks down chlorophyll. Some are shocked with cold, or covered in wax. Some are scrubbed down with detergent and a few are just dipped in dye. Anything for a sale.

Via gizmodo