How long does passion fruit last? Best storage method

You may have passion fruit-scented candles in your home but possibly not the fruit. The fruit smells and tastes even better if you think the candles smell great. This hard-shelled fruit is roughly the size of a golf ball and baseball for larger passion fruit. Passion fruit is somewhat of an enigma to many shoppers. What do you do with it, and how long will it last?

Did you know that you can even use passion fruit flowers? They have been used for centuries as herbal medicine and can be made into teas. If you have anxiety attacks, passion fruit flowers are worth checking out. They are renowned for their calming and soothing properties. It could be nature’s chill pill.

If you have not tried passion fruit, you are missing out. This article will share with you the information needed about passion fruit. We answer many frequently asked questions, including the best method to store passion fruit.

Let’s get into it.

Does passion fruit expire?

Yes, but there are ways to make this tasty sweet fruit last longer. The precise time for passion fruit to expire can vary, and this is the reason why. You can buy passion fruit that is not fully ripe and leave it in the fruit bowl to ripen.

How do you recognize ripe passion fruit? It is easy. The tough outer skin will be wrinkly, and in this state, the ripe passion fruit can sit out in a bowl for two weeks and be perfectly fine to eat in that time frame.

You can further extend the life of ripe passion fruit by storing it in the fridge. Ripe fruit will store for a month and still taste beautiful when you scoop out the pulp.

Passion fruit has a tough exterior skin that can be hard to cut, so the fruit does not suffer damage from birds or insects. It is unnecessary to store passion fruit in the fridge to extend its life. It can be placed in a cool pantry with good airflow and away from direct sunlight.

There is a myriad of ways to store passion fruit to extend the fruit’s life without degradation, which is unusual for exotic fruit. However, you can enjoy the full flavor of passion fruit the whole year round if you are savvy with your selection of fruit and the way it is stored.

Does passion fruit need to be refrigerated?

It depends on the state of ripeness of the fruit. Unripe passion fruit can easily sit out for two to three weeks in a fruit bowl as they ripen gently.

However, if you have ripe passion fruit and want to extend its life for up to a month, place it in the fridge to keep it cool. Despite being considered an exotic fruit, the passion fruit is hardy and can stay fresh for quite a long time before it spoils.

If you have a lot of passion fruit to deal with from your own garden, then you may wish to consider scooping the flesh from the ripe passion fruits and storing it in an airtight container in the fridge. They will last for a couple of weeks in this condition, and it is very convenient to add passion fruit to your favorite dishes.

Does passion fruit need to be covered?

It depends. If the passion fruit is sitting in a fruit bowl waiting to be eaten, then the tough skin will keep it protected. It’s the same for the fridge. If you place passion fruit in the fridge, the tough exterior has it covered until it is cut open and consumed.

But a common way of storing passion fruit in the fridge is to store the pulp in an airtight container. This method is convenient because passion fruit is tough, and scaling and scooping a decent amount of the fruit can be time-consuming.

You may wish to add passion fruit to desserts and even drinks, so having the pulp in the fridge makes life easy. But the passion fruit pulp will need to be covered to prevent discoloration of the pulp through oxidation.

How long can passion fruit sit out?

If the fruit is ripe, it can sit in a bowl at room temperature for two weeks. After this point, it should be eaten or thrown away.

The story is different if you have the pulp in a dessert bowl. The passion fruit no longer has the rugged protection of its own skin. The passion fruit sitting out will be exposed to bacteria load. After two hours, the bacteria will have accelerated and grown so much that the passion fruit should be discarded.

According to the USDA, perishable food sitting at room temperature for two hours should be discarded. The bacterial levels will have become sufficient to make the fruit potentially dangerous for consumption.

Does unopened passion fruit go bad?

Yes, eventually. It will depend on the state of ripeness of the passion fruit, and ripe passion fruit lasts for approximately two weeks in the fruit bowls sitting out at room temperature. You can gain another two weeks of storage in the fridge for the same fruit.

But after two weeks and four weeks, respectively, the fruit will begin to diminish in its own tough exterior. Passion fruit is subject to mold, but a moldy exterior does not mean the pulp is bad.

Wipe the mold off the passion fruit, cut it open and eat the flesh if there are no funky smells. As passion fruit degrades, it tends to become more tart which is perfectly acceptable to many people.

The ripper the passion fruit becomes, the darker the skin will have come, changing from green to a deep purple. If the skin is brown, the fruit has gone over being ripe and has started to rot.

How long does passion fruit last in the fridge?

If the passion fruit is green and not ripe, maybe it’s best not to place it in the fridge, the ripening process will slow down, and the fruit could rot if sitting in the fridge for too long.

Ripe passion fruit will last for 1 month in the fridge. Given the robust skin, you don’t need to be careful with the fruit, and you can store it in any location in the fridge.

Passion fruit pulp stored in an airtight container in the fridge will last for approximately two weeks, give or take a coil of days. Place the pulp in the coolest part of the fridge, which usually is the back of the fridge. This will prevent temperature fluctuations.

It is essential to keep the pulp covered, uncovered, and expired to the air will cause discoloration, and the passion fruit could become tainted with odors from the fridge, such as cucumber or sliced onion odors that spoil the flesh.

Does frozen passion fruit go bad?

In theory, food stored in the freezer at 0℉ has an indefinite shelf life. But the truth is food does spoil in the freezer and can rot. Passion fruit will last at least three months in the freezer.

Did you know that you can freeze whole passion fruits? They have rugged outer protection that will help the fruit pulp retain its sweet, tangy flavor profile. But the good news is you can freeze passion fruit in the freezer without too much preparation.

Just place the whole passion fruit in a Ziploc bag and place it in the freezer. The bag is just to keep the passion fruit together in the freezer.

If you want to store a lot of passion fruit, consider removing the pulp, this will reduce the volume of space needed in the freezer for storing many passion fruit. If you have a lot, then store it in batches for easy retrieval; from the freezer. 

The life of pulp in the freezer is long compared to whole passion fruit. In the freezer, passion fruit pulp should last for 12 months. However, you should add a cup of sugar to the pulp, which will help preserve the fruit.

How do you thaw passion fruit?

The best way to thaw whole passion fruit is to leave it in the fridge overnight. Thawing passion fruit pulp should use the same method, but you can put it in a bowl of cold water to speed up the process.

Passion fruit thaws quickly, so best to wait for a natural thaw than to push the limits of the fruit by heating.

Can you make preserves from passion fruit?

Yes. Passion fruit preserves are delicate but mind-blowingly flavorsome from the abundant fruit. The skin of passion fruit is high in pectin, so use it to make passion fruit jam.

Final thoughts

This tasty little fruit is more resilient than most people would think. It can stay in a fruit bowl for two weeks when ripe and taste perfect when cut open. The same passion fruit will gain an additional two weeks of shelf life in the fridge.

You can freeze whole passion fruit for three months and the passion fruit pulp for up to one year without degradation.

For the cooks, passion fruit is perfect for preserves and jams.