10 Mistakes you should avoid in Storing your Produce
It is only when your produce gets wasted or tastes bad that you will start thinking about its storage aspect. After all, it is the human tendency to realize the importance of something when it’s absent or gets wasted. The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has inferred that, among all types of foods, vegetables and fruits have the highest rate of waste in the world.
So much food waste is not just expensive, but bad for the environment too. You should truly feel the value of food because you purchase or cultivate it, and on the other hand, millions of people in the world have to beg for it. Know how to properly store your fruits and vegetables, avoid the storage mistakes that reduce their quality.
Avoid keeping zucchini in the coldest part of the fridge
Some foods do require refrigeration, but extreme temperatures are not their thing. A prime example is Zucchini. You should keep it wrapped in paper towels and store it in the crisper. Zucchini should be eaten in five days if you want to enjoy its best taste and quality.
Tomatoes shouldn’t be in the refrigerator
It’s not at every stage of their life that tomatoes will stay edible in the fridge. You should store them at room temperature where they can get ripe to maximum flavor. Keep them inside only if they are cut or overripe. You should know that unripe tomatoes won’t get their red color or reach full ripeness and ripe tomatoes will turn mealy, lose flavor in the fridge.
Always keep herbs with water
Herbs need water, even in refrigeration, they shouldn’t be separated from it. You can keep them in the fridge like a bouquet. Simply cover the top with a bag (e.g. a reusable cotton produce bag) and stick them in a glass of water.
These measures are to replicate the conditions of a Greenhouse where the produce stays fresh for a longer time because of humidity. You can use an airtight container or a waxed paper but not a breathable bag. Except for basil, majority of the herbs require refrigeration.
Don’t keep eggplant or cucumbers in the fridge
You can keep these two foods in the fridge for up to three days. But beyond that, the eggplants suffer discoloration and other damages in the refrigerator; and the same goes for the cucumber. Both of them are suitable for the room temperature environment if you want an optimum shelf life and best flavor. SO keep these things in mind the next time you throw the cucumber and eggplant in the fridge.
Old spring onions shouldn’t be thrown out
Did you know if the Spring onions have intact roots, they can be grown again? They have a shelf life of about 7 to 10 days in refrigeration. So it will be wise to not toss them out if you keep them beyond 10 days. To regrow, just cut-off the bottom inch of the onion, put it in any water bowl, and it will grow back.
Keep vegetables and fruits away from each other
This might sound a bit weird, but it is absolutely true. Majority of the fruits produce ethylene, a ripening hormone, which can cause vegetables and other fruits to get damaged or quickly over-ripen if they are ethylene sensitive.
Looks like it is time to know which foods are ethylene producing and which are sensitive to it, and start keeping them away from each other in the fridge. Store the ethylene producing foods in airtight containers only if you want quick ripening or else you will need to throw them out.
Storage of produce should be avoided like the Supermarket
All the produce that is stored on the counter in the farmstand or the supermarket at room temperature is rotated regularly according to their shelf-life. But still, many people get fooled, copy them and end up damaging their produce. The green leafy vegetables like Lettuces should always be in the refrigerator, in a bag which will keep them from wilting.
You shouldn’t keep watermelons in the refrigerator
Who doesn’t love to eat fresh out of the fridge, cold watermelon? Probably people having a fever. But this cool taste of watermelons is what makes people think and prompts them to keep watermelons in the fridge. But you should know that this green and red fruit loses its color and flavor if it is kept for more than three days in the fridge.
You should only prefer a cut melon to keep in the fridge, that too for food safety. The whole melon should be kept at room temperature away from sunlight for best results.
Always keep root vegetables in a bag
Root vegetables like carrots and beet will have more shelf-life if they are kept in moisture. They can stay for weeks, even months if you keep them in bags in the fridge. The bags can be cotton, plastic, or of any other material. Besides, the bags also help in organizing the produce in the fridge. Some other root vegetables are onions, turnips, garlic, ginger, sweet potatoes, radishes, and fennels.
Freeze berries at the earliest
Berries don’t have a long shelf life. It is only the Blueberries that can last for 10 days. Most other berries last only up to 3 days; they include Raspberries, Strawberries, and Blackberries. If over-ripening happens, instead of discarding them, keep them in the freezer and use in your smoothies! Same trick you can use for bananas, after peeling them. One more tip is to not throw all the berries away if you see mold on a few of them, just pick out the ones affected and continue using the healthy ones.
Different fruits and vegetables have different shelf-life and need different temperatures for storage, knowing all of these for every produce and implementing it regularly will ensure zero wastage, high-quality & taste for your food.
