By RIPE, checked against a produce manager's cues. Published .
A firm potato with a few small sprouts is fine: rub the sprouts off, cut out the eyes, and cook it as normal. A potato that has gone soft and shriveled with long pale sprouts, or that is green under the skin, should go in the bin.
What to check
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Sprouts and the skin just under the surface are where solanine concentrates, which is the bitter compound worth avoiding, and cooking does not destroy it.
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Green patchesthe green itself is chlorophyll and harmless, but it forms under the same light exposure that raises solanine, so treat green as a warning flag. Peel it away generously, or bin the potato if the green runs deep.
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Avoideating anything that tastes bitter or burns the back of your throat. That is the practical signal, and it is worth trusting over any visual rule.
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Sprouting means the potato is waking up, so it is also a sign that wherever you are keeping them is too warm or too bright.
Common mistakeassuming cooking fixes it. Boiling, baking and frying all leave solanine essentially intact, which is why the answer is to cut it away rather than to cook it harder.
Written by the team behind RIPE, a free app that reads a photo of the whole produce pile and rings the ripest ones. Every cue above is one you can check with your own hands, and it all works with no app at all.
People also ask
How should you store potatoes and onions?
Cool, dark, dry and airy for both, but never in the same bin. Full answer
How can you tell if corn on the cob is fresh?
Feel through the husk: kernels should be plump and tight to the tip, and the silk tips should be brown and slightly damp, which is normal on a mature ear. Full answer
How do you pick fresh asparagus?
Look for straight spears with tight, dry, closed tips. Full answer
Or just show us the one in your hand
Take a photo of a single piece, filling the frame, in decent light. Free, no signup, and it tells you what it cannot see.
You just read the cue for one piece. RIPE reads a photo of the entire display, draws numbered rings on the ones worth taking, and tells you why in the same plain words these guides use. Then it remembers what you brought home and nudges you before it turns.
It claims only what a camera can actually see. Every verdict ends by handing the last check back to your hands, which is the part these guides just taught you.
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