Is It Safe To Eat Wrinkly Grapes?

Grapes are a delicious fruit with plenty of health benefits — including, per Healthline, anticancer effects — but like any produce they definitely can go bad, either naturally through age, or as a result of poor storage conditions.

So how do you know if your grapes have gone bad? According to The Whole Portion, there are several ways to evaluate the condition of your grapes, based on factors that range from color and smell to taste and texture. Healthy grapes, for example, should have good color, a pleasant smell, a taste that's not sour or bitter, and a firm texture. In terms of the latter, wrinkled grapes are generally considered an indicator of spoilage.

However, as Chicago Food Bank observes, small fruits like grapes and cherries bruise easily, and what may appear to be spoilage could just be fruit that was crushed through overaggressive handling. But although technically these wrinkled grapes may still be safe to eat, Spoon University advises against it, since in that condition they're definitely not going to taste as good as firm, healthy grapes.