Spontaneous Combustion! (The Case of the Exploding Coconut...)

I've been doing much research of late into coconut suppliers and quality control, experimenting with the best method of storage to avoid spoilage etc and I've come to the conclusion that it's cheaper and MUCH fresher to buy directly from the supplier in bulk (that is, the company that imports them into the country for all the big supermarkets etc - if you are in Australia it is "FMP Marketing" and they have a website).

So, I've come to the conclusion that the reason there are so many spoiled coconuts on the shelf is because they shouldn't be kept on the shelf! They should be stored in the fridge! That's right! The fridge! I watched a couple of good coconuts grow mould out of the soft eye within THREE DAYS of receiving them fresh from the supplier's cool room. That's how sensitive they are to heat spoilage once they've been harvested. They ferment.

Anyway, I'm still in the process of negotiating bulk prices etc., so I ran out of nice fresh coconuts. I bought some from the local fruit and veg, and got them home and put them in the fridge (like I do with all other coconuts now). I was sitting at my desk typing away and "KABOOM!" there was this loud noise in my fridge, followed by what sounded like a coconut dropping off the shelf in my fridge. I was startled by the loud noise but didn't think much of it, except a bit of annoyance and perplexity that it could just roll off the shelf like that.

That is, until I got the hankering for some fresh coconut water and opened the fridge to get one out...

I opened the door to find that the coconut had somehow BLOWN IT'S TOP! Now, don't ask me how, I don't really understand the physics of coconuts, but the thing had split itself in half with perfect precision and the top was lying face down next to the bottom, which was upright and still contained most of the water... there was also exploded coconut water all over the fridge! I've never seen anything quite like it!

I called my boyfriend over to have a look and he hypothesised that it was a bad nut and the expanding gas had caused it to split. We had a sniff and sure enough the thing was fermented. I only bought it from the store a few hours before, so it didn't ferment in the fridge. The strange thing is, if it was expanding gas that caused the explosion, wouldn't the cool temperatures of the refrigerator have mitigated this somewhat???

So that means it could have otherwise exploded during handling and I could have been seriously injured! Death by coconut! The stuff of nightmares!

(I've also heard that coconuts dropping out of trees kills hundreds of people every year... Respect.)
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