why would a lid make the aloe juice turn pink? is it a fungus?

THROW IT OUT!

It's probably a BACTERIA called Pseudomonas. It grows naturally on most plants, and can cause really NASTY infections in humans.

This is why slicing open an aloe and rubbing it on a wound is stupid: you might as well rub dirt in it.

Commercial aloe juice is collected under STREILE conditions, not in a home kitchen.

AH! You scared me! "THROW IT OUT!" Holy moly! I thought it wqas like an airborne disease that would kill my family! lol

FYI - "Pseudomonas is often encountered in hospital and clinical work because it is a major cause of hospital acquired (nosocomal) infections... Rarely will you find Pseudomonas as a cause of infection in healthy individuals. Its non-invasive nature limits its pathogenic capabilities."

Here is a link that might be useful: Pseudomonas

Slicing WASHED Aloe with a sterile knife and using it is perfectly fine.

Using freshly gathered aloe is rarely a problem, but yeah; you can't really keep the juice safely.

Luckily, it's available in stay-fresh, low-maintainence, serving-size packets -- when you grow the plant!

Fresh aloe always turned pink when I kept it in the fridge. Never caused me any problems, however, I was only using it as a facial mask (i.e., topically & on unbroken skin) so I have no experience with whether it's safe to ingest once it turns pink.

I have a couple suggestions, depending on how you were planning to use the aloe use.

One, is to try the traditional way of harvesting aloe, instead of "squeezing" the leaves: use a sharp knife to score the leaf lengthwise & 'filet' the gel from the skin. Cut away the inner flesh leaving enough margin (1/8th of an inch is plenty) so as to not get all the green & intensely bitter juices from the skin. This way you'll have aloe gel that is milder tasting but sufficiently potent. You can then puree or press & strain the clear flesh to produce juice if that's what you prefer using. (The green juices seem to cause very strong intestinal movement - which sometimes is what folks are aiming for; the clear flesh is gentler.)

Two, consider stirring grapefruit seed extract (GSE) into the product. I use 1 to 6 drops per ounce (which is waaaay plenty) if I'm concerned about spoilage in any of my herbal preparations. It's a safe & remarkably non-toxic preservative with powerful anti-microbial activity. At one drop per ounce you can't really taste its bitterness, but the aloe is already bitter I don't think it would be very noticeable.

Green blessings!

~bushpoet

Here is some interesting info:

Have you ever cut an aloe leaf and noticed how the sticky substance inside quickly turns yellow, then pink? This is evidence of rapid oxidation. Aloe is know to have at least seven different super-oxide dismutases (SODs) that remove destructive free radicals fromyour body. But unless the aloe brand you buy is cold-processed immediately after picking, then packaged under nitrogen to prevent deterioration, these SODs will oxidize and become useless.