Popular food TikToker Lorenzo Espada (@eatwitzo) is yet another person on the platform with melon trouble.
He posted a video showing how a watermelon he left out on his kitchen counter exploded after a couple of days. Many speculate this is yet another instance of “fake food” being shilled to the American public.
“Y’all I swear I had this watermelon four or five days, when out of town, came back, it literally exploded,” Espada says while pointing to the hollowed-out watermelon that looks like an empty, hatched egg of the parasitoid face-huggers from the Alien franchise.
He pushes on the fruit and it begins to cave in on itself. Espada further expounds on the watermelon weirdness in a caption for his clip, writing, “Whats going on with the watermelons?? Maybe a total of 5-6 days since I got it, come back from vacation to it being exploded and literally disintegrated And before yall ask, this was a seeded watermelon!”
What’s up with all the watermelons lately?
This isn’t the first time folks have hopped onto social media to blast strange watermelons they’ve encountered from retailers such as Walmart. One consumer shared a clip of a fruit they purchased from the retailer that, upon rinsing, saw pieces of its outer skin peel off as if it were painted on.
@eatwitzo Whats going on with the watermelons?? 🍉 Maybe a total of 5-6 days since I got it, come back from vacation to it being exploded and literally disintegrated 😂 And before yall ask, this was a seeded watermelon! #watermelon #fruit #eatwitzo ♬ original sound – Eatwitzo
Several folks responded to the video that this is normal for watermelons that have been frozen, which could indicate that the fruits were frozen, and then thawed and placed out onto the shopping floor to be sold.
These strange fruit sightings have gotten people speculating grocery stores have gone so far as to sell “fake” watermelons to the public—one woman accused Walmart of doing so in a viral video of her own. In the clip, she shows what appears to be a watermelon, similar to the one that Espada posted in his video, that was caving in on itself.
In its coverage of her clip, the Daily Dot linked to a piece by Today that explains what is more than likely going on with the melon: It has fermented from the inside and caused the watermelon to collapse in on itself—bacteria such as fungus could have been growing inside of the melon, breaking down the structural integrity of the fruit from within which is what causes it to look like a deflated accordion.
But is fungus an explanation for a watermelon to explode, like Espada said happened with the fruit he posted to his own TikTok? According to All Recipes, exploding watermelons aren’t exactly rare.
The outlet explained that due to a combination of bacteria, and heat, watermelons can explode: “When these watermelons are still in the ground and growing, they can pick up bacteria. Once bacteria combine with the natural sugars and yeast in the melon—and other factors such as temperature come into play—the fruit can start to ferment. Heat can speed up the fermentation process, leading to more foaming and exploding. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about 80 percent of all watermelons are grown in four states—Florida, Georgia, Texas, and California. Other prominent states include Arizona and Delaware.”
Location matters, as Kathy Savoie, a food safety expert/Professor at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension said in an interview with the Bangor Daily News: “There have been increases in hot weather in those parts of the country. Fruits have a natural sugar called fructose, and under extended and undesirable storage conditions, it will ferment.”
Buyers are still wary
Information such as this hasn’t seemed to quell fears from shoppers who believe that they are being duped into buying “fake fruit” at grocery stores, and it doesn’t just stop at Watermelons: One Costco shopper went viral for “exposing” impostor bananas he purchased at the bulk store.
TikTokers who saw Espada’s video didn’t seem to think this was a case of just a simple rotting watermelon, however.
“He should be alarmed that there are no fruit flies,” one said.
Another replied, “No ants, no fruit flies, no maggots…. what’s up with this ‘watermelon’?”
In any event, Espada might be able to comfort himself knowing that he might be able to submit a claim and get a payout for the watermelon explosion, as one TikToker wrote: “I once handled an insurance claim for a watermelon exploding. they got a new kitchen because of it.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to the FDA and Espada via email for further comment.
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