Does it need checking? Guava is not commonly infested in the USA, and mostly infested in Israel. (Rav Moshe Vaya) Open or peel every guava and look for soft spots and discoloring.
Rav Vaya’s rating
| USA | ✓ | not commonly infested (muchzak k’naki) |
| Israel | ★★ | mostly infested (muchzak b’negiut) |
Rav Moshe Vaya, Bedikat HaMazon K’Halacha, Degree of Infestation chart, p. 936 (Guava)
Which bugs
- Fruit flies lay their eggs inside the guava. Worms then grow inside the fruit.
- The worms are white, the same color as the guava, so they are hard to find. A close look may show them.
- The maggots are the color of the fruit, with a small black dot on the head. (Rav Moshe Vaya)
- Leaf miner: it leaves tracks inside the fruit, with discoloring on all sides.
How to check
- Look at the skin. Bumps and discoloring on the surface are common.
- A mostly clean guava with only a little discoloring is probably okay. Peel it.
- After peeling, look inside. If it is clean, with no discoloring and no soft spots, you can eat it.
- Another way: cut off the sides and slice the guava. Look at the cut surface to see if it looks healthy.
- If the discoloring is only on the skin and did not go into the flesh, remove it. The rest is clean.
- If the discoloring goes into the fruit, or you see leaf-miner tracks, the guava is infested. Avoid it.
- Open every guava this way, looking for soft spots and discoloring.
Watch
Pictures
Sources
- Rav Moshe Vaya, Bedikat HaMazon K’Halacha, Degree of Infestation chart, p. 936 (rating).
- Rav Moshe Vaya, Bedikat HaMazon K’Halacha: summary sheet “Tu BiShvat Without Worms: All the Fruits and How to Check Them” (published by Machon Aliya).
Related
References: Rav Moshe Vaya — “Tu BiShvat Without Worms: All the Fruits and How to Check Them” (Machon Aliya, Hebrew)
