Food - Drink
The Best Ways To Store Watermelon
By WENDY LEIGH
You wait all year for the first watermelons to hit roadside stands or grocery-store produce sections, but that joy can quickly fade if you fail to store them properly. Most watermelons last up to four weeks once they're plucked from the vine, so you’ll want to make sure the watermelon you buy is heavy and has a faded yellow or light tan spot, indicating that it laid in the warm sun.
If the whole, uncut watermelon is field-fresh and has yet to enter the "cold chain" during its journey, there is no need to refrigerate it right away. However, if it has entered cold storage on refrigerated transportation trucks or in grocery stores, you should store the watermelon at temperatures between 50 and 60 degrees F, with a relative humidity level of 90%.
If you cut your watermelon before refrigerating, the CDC recommends eating it within 24 hours. Any watermelon stored outside of the fridge will quickly deteriorate if kept at warm temperatures, and storing it next to other fruits will cause it to rot faster, as many fruits emit ethylene.