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I cut my apple open this morning and found that it had an unexpected consistency emanating from the core. I couldn't find much about what's going on here other than maybe this is some kind of mold (seems unlikely).

What's going on with this apple?

This particular apple was part of an Amazon Fresh delivery. I've had about 10 of them up to this point, all of which were good apples.

I took a bite before throwing it out. It tasted fine and the texture is the same as far as I can tell (dense, fibrous). Ultimately I decided to toss it erring on the side of caution.

apple with saturated core

Cascabel
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Jacksonkr
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    All righty, no answers in comments, please, and that includes guesses and things you think it's *not*. – Cascabel Oct 11 '17 at 20:55

1 Answers1

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This appears to be watercore, specifically radial watercore, from the image you have posted. It should be safe to eat, according to this site and this site.

According to an article from Washington State University, watercore is a disorder of some apple variants, which can cause the internal flesh to appear glassy [shiny and translucent] later into the growing season. In some studies, low levels of calcium have been shown alongside the condition. As well, it should be noted that the condition 1) does not occur after harvesting 2) may cause an increase of sweetness, and 3) cause the apple to quickly degrade during storage.

As to the causes of this disorder, there are a number of theoretical factors for causation: Genetic defects, water regiment, temperature, minerals, leaf-to-fruit ratio, maturation and ripening, sorbitol metabolism and altered transport. These are discussed to some degree in both the WSU article and this MSU article

Incorporeal Logic
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  • Nailed it. [Google Image Search](https://www.google.com/search?q=watercore+in+apples&safe=off&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjxqPr39OjWAhWKQCYKHXIMDroQ_AUICigB&biw=1463&bih=1090) – Jacksonkr Oct 11 '17 at 15:46
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    Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_mining_in_agriculture#Sorting_apples_by_watercores: *[W]atercore (…) is an internal apple disorder that can affect the longevity of the fruit. Apples with slight or mild watercores are sweeter, but apples with moderate to severe degree of watercore cannot be stored for any length of time.* – dessert Oct 11 '17 at 16:55
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    I'd recommend adding a description of what watercore is and it's effects in the actual answer. – Shiri Oct 11 '17 at 16:57
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    Odd, we always called that sugar windows, and did not consider it a defect when raising apples for cider. We got it a lot when apples stayed on the tree until after a frost and the tree pumped more sugar into the fruit. It definitely will effect storage and spoil much faster than fruit without, but we pressed immediately after picking. I guess for storage it would be considered a defect though. – dlb Oct 11 '17 at 17:34