“It was foaming like a volcano, so I thought this is not good,” retired biology teacher Julie Raines tells Inside Edition.
Americans eat 5.1 billion pounds of watermelon each year. But this year comes a new warning, exploding watermelons.
Some people have posted videos of their watermelons exploding on social media.
It usually starts with a sizzling sound followed by an oozing liquid with a bad odor.
To figure out what is going on, Inside Edition spoke to Lisa Moscowitz, CEO of the New York Nutrition Group, who says extreme heat many Americans are experiencing is causing bacteria to grow inside watermelons.
“Bacteria can convert the sugar in watermelon to alcohol which increases carbon dioxide. Thus you get a building up of air pressure and then watermelon soup. And it can just explode in front of you.”
It happened to retired biology teacher Julie Raines.
“It was foaming like a volcano, so I thought this is not good,” Raines says.
She says her watermelon started hissing so she brought the melon outside.
“I got my goggles on because I didn’t wanna get exploding watermelon in my face,” Rains says.
She then made a cut into the watermelon that released the gas.
“I was grateful it didn’t explode in my face but I was kind of disappointed it did not explode. I would have been kind of cool,” Raines said.
The best advice for getting a good watermelon is to look for a dull and dark melon that is round and plump.
