Brisbane Orange turning purple after being cut open leave experts baffled.
A freshly-cut orange that turned deep purple overnight has been sent for testing in just the second Queensland incident on record, with experts hopeful they can solve the mysterious colour change.
Brisbane mum Neti Moffitt cut up an orange on Tuesday for her two-year-old son, feeding him half and leaving the remaining quarters on the bench.
The next morning, to her amazement, she noticed the remaining orange quarters had turned bright purple.
Digging into the rubbish bin, she found the pieces eaten by her son were also purple, even more so than the pieces that hadn’t been eaten.
“For the rest of the day and overnight they continued to develop this really amazing indigo colour,” she said on Friday.
“Everyone is so utterly intrigued and desperate to find the answer.”
The orange was one of several purchased from a local fruit and veggie store, and none of the other oranges the Moffitt family ate turned the same purple hue.
Turning to Google for answers, Ms Moffitt said she found just one similar incident in 2015, with a Toowoomba woman, Angela Postle, finding an orange had turned purple after she cut it open.
After contacting Queensland Health, Ms Moffitt said a “very excited” inspector asked her to wait overnight and see if the oranges changed colour again.
“The lady in Toowoomba who had it three years ago that her orange went purple … while it was being tested, it turned back orange,” she said.
After Ms Moffitt posted photos of the purple orange on Facebook – sparking debate about what might have caused the change – Ms Postle got in touch with her.
Ms Moffitt said neither she nor Ms Postle had tampered with the oranges, or had them exposed to any chemicals that might have influenced the colour.
She said the Queensland Health inspector who collected the remaining orange quarters was particularly excited to have another opportunity to solve the “weird phenomena”.
“Queensland Health will get back to me with full disclosure on the test results,” she said.
“Once I have the test results I’ll be sharing those with everyone.”
She said her toddler was perfectly healthy after eating the orange, and the experience hadn’t put her family off eating the fruit.
