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How To Clean A Pineapple

It’s not hard to learn how to clean a pineapple but there are a few simple tips that you need to keep in mind. Once you learn how simple a pineapple is to clean, you’ll never have to think twice about germs again!

A pin showing the title how to clean a pineapple and images of pineapples being cleaned

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Are you supposed to wash a pineapple?

We’ve always been taught that you need to wash your fruit, but have you seen the outside of a pineapple?

Even though it looks a little bit funky, you still need to give it a scrub. Just use some water and a veggie brush and clean the outside area. Never use soap on your edible fruits and vegetables.

That way you’re getting off whatever gunk and grime are on the outer layer and you’re not dragging it into the fruit when you’re cutting into your pineapple. We often forget about the dirt and germs on the outside of a fruit that can be transferred to the clean fruit flesh inside.

washing a pineapple

How to easily clean pineapple

After you wash off the outside area of the pineapple, you just need to do the following steps to cut and get your pineapple as clean as possible to eat.

Using a sharp knife cut off the top of the pineapple (the part with the stem) and then stand it up on its end. You can then slice down the outer area of the pineapple into strips and toss it in the trash.

Just be certain that you’re not cutting away too much of the good part of the pineapple as that is where all the flavor is!

See how simple it can be? Clean your pineapple and then make this Mango Pineapple Smoothie Bowl!

cutting a pineapple

Can I Core a Pineapple?

Of course, if you don’t want to use the old-fashioned way of preparing a pineapple, you can always use a pineapple corer.

Using a corer ensures you will have nice even pineapple rings.

Fresh pineapple rings in a white bowl on a wooden background.

How to tell when a pineapple is ripe

This is one of those tough situations that many people don’t know. And the last thing that you want to spend your hard-earned money on is a pineapple that just isn’t ripe.

The easiest way to tell if a pineapple is ripe is to give it the sniff test. If you smell near the stem area, you should notice a sweet smell right off the bat. If you do, buy that pineapple because it’s ripe and ready to eat!

Another way to tell if a pineapple is ripe is to give the top most “leaves” a little tug. They should come out very easily on a ripe pineapple!

How do you ripen a pineapple?

A super-quick way to ripen your pineapple is to store it upside down. This is a fast way to get the natural sugars of the pineapple to distribute to the other areas and sweeten the whole pineapple more quickly.

Do pineapples ripen faster in the fridge?

They do not. Leaving your pineapple out on the kitchen counter and having it sit at room temperature will make it ripen faster.

You can store your pineapple in the refrigerator if you like, it won’t help it ripen but that’s totally up to you!

After you clean and cut a pineapple you need to store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Serve and eat within three days of cutting for best flavor and freshness.

Like these simple pineapple tips? Check out some fun recipes below to make using pineapple!

A pin showing the title how to clean a pineapple and images of pineapples being cleaned

More Pineapple Recipes

If you need an idea of what to do with all of those fresh pineapple chunks now, fear not! We’ve got you covered with some delicious recipes. I use pineapples in smoothies, eat them raw, and include them in some of my favorite recipes.

I really like the mango pineapple smoothie bowl, you can also enjoy these fruit salad recipes with pineapple, and try out this fresh pineaple kiwi smoothie with some of the fresh pineapple you just prepared!