Cut into a beautiful green avocado only to find strings laced through it? Here's what they are and whether they're safe to eat.
What Are the Stringy Things in Avocados?
Updated on Apr. 25, 2025
Avocados are already a dicey purchase. They seem to have a 46-minute window of perfect ripeness, leaving most of us stuck with an overripe or underripe fruit. But that’s not the only thing that makes buying avocados difficult. Stringy avocado is another obstacle standing in your way on the road to the ultimate guacamole.
If you’ve ever opened up an avocado only to find it full of weird stringy fibers, you probably wonder if they’re even safe to eat (just as you’ve likely wondered about whether you can eat brown avocados).
Honestly, those strings look pretty unappetizing, but is that enough reason to trash an avocado?
What are the stringy things in my avocados?
“These are vascular bundles, which are roughly analogous to our veins,” explains Mary Lu Arpaia, professor of cooperative extension in subtropical horticulture at the University of California. “There are two major types of vascular tissue in the plant. Phloem tissue typically moves the products of photosynthesis downward from the leaves throughout the plant, including the fruit. The second tissue, the xylem, primarily moves water and nutrients up from the roots into the above-ground [part] of the plant.”
Obviously, not all avocados appear stringy despite having these vascular bundles, so what makes them more pronounced? “These strings are generally the result of fruit from younger trees,” says Terry Splane, vice president of marketing for the California Avocado Growers. “Often, the fibers will disappear or become less noticeable as the fruit and tree mature.”
Are the stringy things in avocados safe to eat?
A stringy avocado isn’t harmful at all, but you will notice a difference in texture. “If you find fibrous strings, consider whipping the fruit into a puree,” says Splane. In other words, this is the perfect time for a guacamole, a sandwich spread or a cream cheese-based dip.
How to avoid picking a stringy avocado
If you’re tired of cutting into these fibrous avocados, then we have a bit of bad news for you—there’s no foolproof way to avoid selecting a stringy avocado. However, Arpaia says that some varieties are just more stringy than others.
“It can be a problem when the fruit have low maturity,” she says. The Lamb Hass avocado is a good example. They can be stringy early on, but as they progress through the harvest season, the vascular tissue is less noticeable.
Luckily, like pulp on an orange, the strings are easy to peel off. Pinch the ends and pull them out of the avocado slices so you can enjoy your avo toast without the weird texture.
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