Yesterday we visited the topic of bagged produce. Here are three more points on so-called “higher value produce,” fruits and vegetables that are 
washed, cut and sold in packages.Â
1. Cut fruit breaks down faster than cut vegetables. It starts to go about 4-5 days after processing, so don’t buy that fruit salad too far in advance of when you plan to eat it. This will ring true to anyone who’s ever tried to eat cut strawberries the day after they were chopped.
2. Packaging lowers oxygen levels to prolong the items’ shelf life, but the cut produce still lasts less time than if it remained whole.
3. I spoke with U.C. Davis Agricultural Extension Specialist Trevor Suslow on cut produce and IÂ love his semantics on this topic.
The more wounding you inflict, the quicker the produce becomes unusable. It starts chemical reactions in the fruit that responds to the wounding.
Get the stretcher, we’ve got a wounded onion.