How Long Do Lemons Last (And Why)?

Exact Answer: About 2 weeks

One can only be a master in cooking if he/she gets to know the storing tips of the veggies, meat products, and others besides bringing tastiness to the food. When it comes to food different cuisines in the world are famous for their unique tastes or to say flavors. As five basic flavors are sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami and it’s very important of all these flavors in food to be balanced, if one flavor goes dominated or lowered the food loses its unique taste.

To talk about sour flavor many sources provide this taste like lemon and others. There is usage of lemons as it is not only for adding flavor to the food but also acts as a preservative that prevents rotting which means keeping the food free from getting microbial contamination.

How Long Do Lemons Last?

Besides having many uses for lemons other than for the culinary purpose so it is very important to know for one how to store lemons. It is easy to know if lemon has got expired or in other words rotten because one can see the squeaky texture and the color change from green to deep yellow as this also helps during buying them and this is not always true for all the green vegetables.

It is very important to know when to use lemons according to their requirement like if using lemons after two days it is better to buy them at that time so that they can be used freshly then.

Because buying many lemons at a single time and keeping them in the kitchen without using would be of no use as when lemons are kept outside they get quickly rotten that is why one is advised to keep or store the lemons in cold places or to keep it away from the direct sunlight areas. By this storage technique, the lemons can only be stored for about 2 weeks.

If one wants to store them for longer periods it is better to store them in the fridge as it is the coldest place and can also be free from sunlight and for a surprise they remain for 6-8 weeks. There is another doubt that lies when an uncut lemon can remain up to 8 weeks and whether it is the same for the lemons that are cut. The answer is no and the cut lemons would last about only a few days.

Why Do Lemons Last So Long?

To get to know the reason behind the longevity of lemons it is very important to know the nature of lemons and here is the chemical nature of lemons. Chemically lemons are acidic they have a shorter life span and after it gets rotten one can observe black spots because these acidic ones tend to lose moisture slowly and make them dry and lose their flavor.

It is known that acids are the substances that taste sour and bases taste bitter and lemons contain citric acid and they taste sour and the reason which they have a shorter lifespan.

And when comes to why lemons need to be stored in the fridge is simple as it is known that due to moisture deprivation lemons get deteriorated so here the explanation involves some common scientific terms like Evaporation and this is the process where the water molecules get to the surrounding atmosphere due to the temperature and sometimes humidity. And to avoid this evaporation lemons are stored in the refrigerator.

Conclusion

Many dishes have lemon as the main ingredient or the main flavor of the food like Lemon Meringue pie. The texture of this dish is smooth, creamy and it is a lemon tart. One can never forget the main usage of lemon that is lemonade which is served for many gatherings. One can only bring the real taste of lemon to these foods when their taste exists.

References:

1. https://journals.ashs.org/jashs/view/journals/jashs/115/2/article-p251.xml
2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0304423878900079