It’s likely that almost everyone has experienced this frustrating scenario before: you go to the grocery store, you whimsically shop around and purchase an abundance of fresh produce and your usual go-to’s. Maybe you don’t have a particular meal in mind, but you buy these items regardless, thinking that you’ll come up with a means of incorporating them into your meal.
A few days pass, you’ve neglected to cook with them, and it appears they have gone bad.
Not an ideal scenario, as this means wasted food and wasted money.
If you know your way around the produce aisle, you know that there are certain items that go bad rather quickly.
In this blog, we’re going to take a look at some hacks to keep your food fresh.
Don’t Separate Your Bananas Before Eating Them
If you buy bananas often, you’ll know that they have a short shelf life before they turn brown. The key to extend their shelf life is to keep the bananas together, rather than separating them. Wrap the stems of the bananas in plastic wrap after you bring them home and keep them together for as long as possible to prevent them from browning for an extra 3-5 days.
Keep Avocados At Room Temperature
Avocados: another ticking time-bomb in the food realm. One minute you may have perfectly ripened avocados and then a mushy mess the next. Store your avocados at room temperature until they’ve reached the perfect amount of ripeness, then halt the ripening process by sticking them in the refrigerator. If you’ve opened one and you’re only using half, leave the stone in the remaining avocado and squeeze a bit of lemon juice into the remaining half to preserve it even longer.
Ice Your Lettuce
Over a number of days, iceberg lettuce can begin to wilt and go bad. To combat this, separate your leaves and leave them in a sink full of iced water anywhere from 5-30 minutes, depending on how sad your leaves look. It’s not always fun eating your greens, but wilted greens certainly doesn’t make it any better. Additionally, lining your crisper with a paper towel soaks up any condensation from your lettuce, making it last longer.
Apples: The Cure For Potatoes But the Downfall of Other Produce
Apples produce ethylene gas, which helps keep potatoes fresher longer and prevents them from sprouting. Putting an apple in a bag of potatoes will keep them fresher and firmer.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, ethylene gas is toxic for other fruits and vegetables. If you’ve kept apples in a fruit bowl mixed with other fruit, you may notice that the other fruit goes bad a lot quicker. Store your apples in a plastic bag in the fridge away from other fruits and vegetables for extended shelf life.
And as a separate fruit FYI: tomatoes are best stored at room temperature, rather than in the fridge.
Wash Berries in Vinegar
Berries are an expensive fruit but also one of the quickest to go moldy. To prevent this, wash them in one cup of vinegar and three cups of water before storing them in your fridge. Vinegar kills mold spores and bacteria that can cause them to go bad. Just make sure you dry them thoroughly before storing them.
Georgian Waste is a family-owned and operated waste service in Utopia. We’ve been providing waste management services and roll-off bins to individuals and businesses in Simcoe County for years. To find out more, give us a call at 705.424.0082 or send us a message online.
