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Home » Lunches

August 13, 2019 Lunches

Sliced Apples That Won’t Turn Brown

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How to keep cut apples from turning brown for school lunches or on fruit trays is extremely easy! Do not waste your money buying them from the store where they have been sprayed with chemicals to keep them from browning. Apple slices can stay looking great for days with just two simple ingredients: water and salt! Read on to learn all about this easy lunchbox hack!
how to keep cut apples from turning brown

I don’t know when school starts for you, but for me, we are just one week away and if I were the Pinterest Perfect Mom, I would tell you how sad this makes me but that isn’t me and I would never try to pretend to be 🙂  The last few weeks of summer vacation are nothing short of an extreme test of my patience as a momma to six kiddos. They are DONE with each other. I am DONE with their lack of interest in anything that doesn’t revolve around electronics.

Have I mentioned that I believe our teachers should be some of the highest paid professionals out there?

How to keep cut apples from turning brown
In our house, there is no buying of school lunches. When you have 6 kids, that comes to $18/day, or $90/week, or $4,860/school year. I’d rather keep that $5K and take my kids on vacation, not to mention that school lunches here suuuuuuuuck!
 
Now, I know that an apple in it’s natural state makes for a perfect fruit to toss in their lunch boxes, but I’ve discovered that if I pack a whole apple, I will often get a whole apple back. When I pack apple slices, I get zero apples back.
how to keep cut apples from turning brown
 
Over the years, I’ve tried a lot of different “hacks” to learn how to keep cut apples from turning brown but nothing came close to working as well as this one, plus I already have the needed ingredients: water and salt!

These will last for 4-5 days in the fridge sealed in a container, so make a big batch for the whole week to save even more time!  And to answer the question I know you are thinking, no….they do not taste like salt after they are finished soaking 🙂

Need another great lunchbox hack? How about my DIY Re-usable Ice Packs made from inexpensive sponges?  They are simple to make and if one gets lost, not a big deal!

Homemade ice pack for the kids lunch box

How to Keep Cut Apples from Turning Brown VIDEO

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how to keep cut apples from turning brown

How to Keep Cut Apples from Turning Brown

★★★★★ 4.9 from 7 reviews
  • Author: Carole Jones
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Total Time: 5 minutes
Print Recipe
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Description

A simple way to keep apple slices from turning brown in your lunchbox!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 4–5 apples, cored and sliced
  • 4 C cold water
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

Dissolve the salt into the cold water and stir well.  Add the apples and immerse them in the solution.

Soak apples for 5 minutes, then drain away the water.  Do not rinse them. Package your apples into individual or one large airtight container then store in the refrigerator up to 5 days.

Notes

You can do this on a smaller scale with just one apple as well, just reduce the water and salt in half.


Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 large apple
  • Calories: 130
  • Sugar: 25 g
  • Sodium: 0 mg
  • Fat: 0 g
  • Saturated Fat: 0 g
  • Unsaturated Fat: 0 g
  • Trans Fat: 0 g
  • Carbohydrates: 34 g
  • Fiber: 5 g
  • Protein: 1 g
  • Cholesterol: 0 mg

Keywords: lunchbox hacks

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Step by Step Instructions on How to Keep Apples from Browning

Categories: Lunches Tags: Apple

Filed Under: Lunches
32 Comments
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Patricia @ ButterYum says

    August 22, 2012 at 2:17 am

    Don’t you just love teenager’s logic – not! When my 17 year old starts one of her explanations, I smile and roll my eyes.

    Anyway, great tip. I’ve tried lemon juice and fruit fresh (vitamin c), but I’ve never tried salt. I’ll give it a go. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • Noel Stamper says

      January 17, 2021 at 1:04 pm

      Are you using regular table salt, kosher or sea salt?

      Reply
      • Carole says

        January 22, 2021 at 8:51 am

        Any type of salt works

        Reply
  2. Suzan Wood-Young says

    August 30, 2012 at 11:32 pm

    Why can’t your 17 year old make her own lunch?

    Reply
    • Carole says

      August 30, 2012 at 11:54 pm

      She does Suzan. I still have to provide the food for her to pack however. 🙂

      Reply
  3. Lainaholo 'Ohana says

    September 03, 2012 at 4:37 am

    This is awesome :). Found this post via Pinterest, Thank you very much! My little kindergardner starts school this Thursday, & I wanted to pack apple slices for school :). Have you noticed the apple slices turning brown at all? If not, totally going to try this out!

    Reply
  4. Lainaholo 'Ohana says

    September 03, 2012 at 4:39 am

    Scratch that last comment…just read the post again 🙂 Thanks again for the awesome tip!

    Reply
  5. Charlene says

    June 07, 2013 at 5:09 pm

    I use powdered vitamin C powder instead of salt. Works wonderfully! and gives a bit of added vit c boost

    Reply
  6. Anonymous says

    January 28, 2014 at 1:45 am

    Soak your apple slices in Sierra Mist, they won’t turn brown.

    Reply
  7. Jacqueline says

    October 07, 2014 at 8:34 pm

    Genius!!! You solved a big dilemma for me. I thought about sprinkling lemon juice, but probably not the best taste. This is great!! Now I can send fresh apples not the pre-packaged kind in my grand-daughter`s lunch. Thank you so much!!

    Reply
    • Carole says

      October 07, 2014 at 8:35 pm

      So glad you love this idea Jacqueline! I use it ALL the time, at least a couple times a week

      Reply
  8. Wanda says

    August 19, 2017 at 3:06 pm

    Worked like a charm! Wonder if it would work for avocado slices as well?

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Carole says

      August 19, 2017 at 4:18 pm

      Glad it worked for you Wanda! I have no idea about avocado but now I am curious!

      Reply
    • Chan says

      April 28, 2018 at 9:48 am

      Avocado slice you can cover with olive oil

      Reply
  9. Lolita says

    March 06, 2019 at 4:49 am

    Hi there! Such a wonderful article, thanks!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  10. Donald says

    September 08, 2020 at 4:04 pm

    I loved this so much! I’ve seen a lot of different versions of this but I love how this only uses salt and water because I definitely always have those two ingredients.

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Carole says

      September 08, 2020 at 4:17 pm

      I agree! You can soak them in lemon lime soda or lemon juice, but I don’t always have those on hand.

      Reply
      • Alesha says

        September 07, 2021 at 6:37 pm

        I did lemon juice today and the smell that came back was the worst ever, my poor little grade 1 had quite the lunch aroma going on! I will try the salt though.

        Reply
        • Carole says

          September 08, 2021 at 10:34 am

          It works so well!

          Reply
  11. India says

    January 24, 2021 at 5:58 pm

    Thank you! I don’t have kids but I was researching this for myself. I’m a mental health therapist and I see clients back to back for hours with about 10mins in-between. I love slices apples with peanut butter but they turn brown before I can enjoy them. So thank you soooooo much for this tip and keeping me alive and energized for my clients

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Carole says

      February 01, 2021 at 12:07 pm

      So happy to help out!

      Reply
  12. Kim says

    February 08, 2021 at 7:48 pm

    this may be a silly question, but when you soak the apples in the salty water they’re salty, so do you rinse the salt off the apples when you are ready to eat them?

    Reply
    • Carole says

      February 11, 2021 at 10:00 am

      Hey Kim! Not a silly question at all. They actually aren’t salty 🙂 If you are worried about it, you can certainly rinse them but it isn’t necessary.

      Reply
  13. Terra says

    August 22, 2021 at 7:13 pm

    Thank you so much for sharing! The only fruit/vegetable my son will eat is apples and raspberries! Raspberries can be messy, so I stick to apples. I can’t wait to try this- I love that I don’t have to spend extra money!

    Reply
    • Carole says

      August 23, 2021 at 8:38 am

      You are very welcome Terra!

      Reply
  14. KImberley Fredericksen says

    December 07, 2021 at 1:57 pm

    Can you make a fruit tray with the apples after soaking them for 5 minutes? How long are they able to stay open to the air before they start browning?

    Reply
    • Carole says

      December 09, 2021 at 1:01 pm

      Hi Kimberley! Yes, you bet this will work for a fruit tray. Im the fridge, they last for days. Out in the air, about 4-5 hours before they begin to get a tinge of brown to them.

      Reply
  15. Lisa S says

    February 15, 2022 at 11:28 pm

    Can you peel the apples and soak them? I don’t eat the skin and was wondering if it still would work?

    ★★★★

    Reply
    • Carole says

      February 17, 2022 at 1:16 pm

      Hi Lisa! Yes, I ‘m sure that would work well.

      Reply
  16. Rhionan says

    March 01, 2022 at 9:01 pm

    This worked like a charm, finally one more lunch option for my fussy eater!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  17. Stacey says

    March 02, 2022 at 11:00 am

    You say you don’t need to rinse them before you put them in the lunchbox but my son came home saying they tasted like nothing but salt. Only used a little bit of salt for 1 apple. It does work but I think I’ll let them soak overnight and rinse right before they go in my sons lunchbox.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

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