Woman left flabbergasted by post-rinse transformation of watermelon she bought from Walmart

In a world where everyone lives a fast-paced life, no one has the time to grow their own food. All they can do is rely on the grocery stores and supermarkets that claim to have organic options. However, the "fresh produce" claim might not always be true. Many customers share how they stumbled upon artificially-ripened or wax-coated fruits. Recently, a Walmart customer was shocked to find that their watermelon had an unusual appearance after washing. Gabriela, a beautician–who goes by @gabrielanailsnmakeup on TikTok–posted a video revealing how a Walmart's watermelon transformed after a rinse and people couldn't believe their eyes.

At the beginning of the video, Gabriela shows her viewer the watermelon she bought from Walmart and its dark green skin seems to be peeling off. "I like to rinse my watermelon before I cut it," she said. Now we know that the peeling skin was the result of washing the fruit. At one point, Gabriela peels off a thin chunk of skin that looks like paper. As she rubbed her fingers over the rest of the dark green part, the skin seemed to come off easily, revealing the light green layer beneath it. "It's, like, peeling," Gabriela said. "What's going on?" she wondered, asking her viewers if anyone else had faced this issue with their watermelon. 

Gabriela's video garnered over 14 million views. People were surprised by the watermelon's peeling skin. "Yeah, something is definitely wrong with the fruit at Walmart. I brought apples over a month ago and they're still sitting in my fruit basket looking picture perfect, not one sign of decaying," said @samanthaohmy. "At this point, I'm going to just plant my own fruits and veggies," quipped @dani_silandote. "I bought a watermelon from Winco and we forgot to bring it down, so it was left in our truck for two weeks and did not rot at all in this Texas heat! It was still in perfect condition, crazy," added @nenyyyc. 

While several social media users were in awe of this unusual watermelon and shared their experiences with chemically ripened fruits, some people revealed the reason behind the watermelon's peeling skin. "It was frozen and then thawed. That's also why people keep getting rubber fruit at Walmart," said @austinamy8. "Because of transportation and storage, fruits are generally picked before full maturity. They are then frozen and thawed. Unless you grow your own fruits, that's what you're going to get," chimed in @mariamarch179. Seeing these explanations, Gabriela decided to test the theory of freezing and thawing a watermelon. 

In her follow-up video, Gabriela had two pieces of a different watermelon she bought. She froze one piece and put the other in a refrigerator. When Gabriela washed the refrigerated watermelon piece under tap water and tried to peel the skin, it did not come off. But when she thawed the frozen piece she took from the freezer, she immediately found patches of dark green skin peeling off effortlessly. True to the words of many commenters, the previous watermelon she bought from Walmart must've been frozen so it could be preserved longer.

You can follow Gabriela (@gabrielanailsnmakeup) on TikTok for makeup and nail art content.