I tested 8 ways to stop apples from browning. The winner was incredibly simple

If, like me, you're a parent, you probably pack fruit for snack time, hoping the containers come back empty. But if that crisp, freshly sliced apple you thoughtfully packed that morning is brown and mushy by 10am, you may feel like you're fighting an uphill battle.

This back-to-school season, I set out to put an end to sad apple slices once and for all. After sourcing ideas from my colleagues in the Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen, I tested eight popular methods to prevent apples from browning, including coating my fruit in fizzy drink. Here’s how it went – and which method actually worked.

I sliced unpeeled apples and stored them in resealable sandwich bags, except for the two where the container itself was the test. I left them in the fridge for 48 hours, checking several times a day for signs of browning.

Here are the anti-browning methods I tested:

• Coating the apples in the juice of half a lemon, or about 1 tbsp, in the bag
• Soaking the apples in 250ml water mixed with ¼ tsp salt for five minutes, then rinsing and storing
• Soaking the apples in 250ml water mixed with ½ tsp honey for five minutes, then draining and storing
• Rinsing the apples in water
• Coating the apples in 1 tbsp ginger ale in the bag
• Storing the apples with orange slices
• Storing the apples in an airtight glass container
• Storing the apples in a resealable silicone bag

After two days, I compared the colour, flavour, and texture of each set of slices.

Coated in ginger ale

Stored in a resealable silicone bag

Soaked in honey water for five minutes

The first test to fail was my bag of ginger ale-coated apple slices. Within a few hours, the slices were mottled and soft. The ginger ale also gave the fruit a strangely fizzy taste.

Next, the slices I soaked in honey water developed a brown film by the end of the first day. They smelled sweet but didn’t have much honey flavour, and their texture had softened considerably.

Finally, the slices stored in the silicone bag didn’t last as long as the other methods. By the first day, they had noticeable brown patches.

Coated in lemon juice

Rinsed in water

Stored with orange slices

Stored in an airtight container

Several of my tests successfully prevented browning for 24 hours. The apples I’d packed with orange slices were still fairly crisp and bright the next morning.

The airtight container also kept the slices relatively fresh-looking into the following day. An honourable mention goes to lemon juice, which delayed browning for about a day and a half, as did rinsing the apples in water. Both methods left the slices fairly crisp by the end of the second day.

The apple slices I soaked in salt water for five minutes before rinsing resisted browning better than the other methods over the 48 hour period. After 24 hours, they were still bright white, crunchy and fresh-tasting, with no noticeable saltiness. After 48 hours, they’d developed a little browning around the edges, but the texture remained crisp.

Lizzy Briskin is a contributing analyst in the GH Kitchen & Cooking Lab. She tests appliances, kitchen gear, and recipes, and takes the adage “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” very seriously, especially between August and January.

Lizzy Briskin

Contributer

Lizzy Briskin (she/her) is a contributing analyst and writer in the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen & Cooking Lab. She tests kitchen appliances and gear for the GH Institute and writes about food and cooking. She is a food and lifestyle writer and recipe developer who has served as food editor at Real Simple, Food Network, and Pioneer Woman. Her writing and recipes have appeared in outlets including National Geographic, Bon Appétit, Women's Health, Better Homes and Gardens, and The Bump. She has a culinary degree from Cambridge School of Culinary Arts and a BA in English from Amherst College.  

Stacey Smith

Senior Food & Drink Editor

Stacey looks after all food and drink reviews — from coffee pods and veg boxes, to natural wine and tequila.   Stacey is also founder of Crummbs, where she’s written nearly 2,000 restaurant and hotel reviews since 2013. Prior to this, Stacey wrote hundreds of in-depth buying guides for the Independent, i newspaper and BBC Good Food, as well as reviewing restaurants and interviewing celebrities in her column at Balance Magazine.    Stacey has also appeared in BAFTA-nominated BBC documentary Blood, Sweat & Takeaways, where she investigated South East Asia's food production industry, appearing on both Newsnight and BBC World Service to share her findings. Regularly checking out the latest restaurants, bars and product launches, Stacey also loves experimenting with recipes at home, and is a WSET-certified wine and spirits expert, with over 10 years of experience in the business.    You can follow Stacey on Instagram @crummbs_uk