How to Keep Fruits and Vegetables Fresh Longer

Wash produce when you're ready to use it.

Most produce begins to fully ripen and then deteriorate after harvesting. Vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, flavor and scent are lost over time. Loss of moisture content leads to shriveling, while green vegetables lose chlorophyll and begin to yellow. Properly storing produce can keep fruits and vegetables fresh longer and preserve their nutritional content, flavor and firmness.

Instructions

Fruit

1. Wash the fruit just before you're going to consume it, not before storing. Moisture hastens spoilage by encouraging mold.

2. Store unripe fruit, such as bananas, peaches, melons, kiwis, pears and plums, on the counter out of direct sunlight until they ripen. Consume ripened fruit or store it in the refrigerator. Bananas are commonly kept on the counter but they can be placed in the refrigerator when ripe. The peel will blacken but refrigeration will keep the fruit from losing additional nutrients and turning mushy.

3. Keep citrus fruits, such as oranges, tangerines, lemons and limes, in mesh bags in the refrigerator. A perforated plastic bag works as well.

4. Store fruits that release ethylene gas, which is a ripening agent, away from other fruits. Peaches, apples, bananas and watermelon all produce ethylene gas. Fruits that are sensitive to this gas include melons, pears, plums and nectarines.

5. Eat any edible, damaged fruit as soon as possible. Fruit that is bruised or cut will decay quickly.

6. Remove any rotting or molding fruit from storage. For example, one moldy raspberry in a carton will quickly lead to many moldy berries.

7. Break bananas apart from the bunch to slow their ripening. Keep grapes on the stem to keep them full of moisture. Wrap cherries and berries in paper towels and place them in the crisper to help prevent moisture problems.

Vegetables

1. Don't wash vegetables before storing them. As with fruit, wait to wash them just before you're going to eat or cook them.

2. Store tomatoes in a cool, dry place---but not in the refrigerator. An overly cold environment destroys a tomato's flavor. The same is true for onions and potatoes.

3. Keep your refrigerator on the cold side. Many vegetables, such as broccoli, lettuce, spinach and mushrooms, are best preserved at colder temperatures, between 34 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

4. Keep vegetables that are sensitive to ethylene gas, such as cucumbers, beans, carrots, peppers and leafy greens, away from ethylene-gas producers like mushrooms, tomatoes and avocados.

5. Store vegetables that lose moisture quickly in plastic bags. Leafy greens, broccoli, beans, cucumbers, cauliflower, carrots, lettuce and radishes are all examples of vegetables that you should store in plastic bags. Press as much excess air out of the bags as possible as you seal them to help prevent mold.

6. Store asparagus in a shallow dish of water in the refrigerator. Wrap celery stalks in tin foil. Remove the greens of such vegetables as carrots, beets and radishes before storing them.

Tips & Warnings

• Buy produce from local farmer's markets or other nearby growers when possible, since fruits and vegetables begin to deteriorate once they've been harvested. Generally, the less amount of time your produce has spent traveling, the less damaged and aged it's likely to be when you buy it.

References

• Vegetable Expert: Refrigeration Tips: Keeping Vegetables Fresh
• Growing Raw Health: How to Keep Vegetables Fresh
• Natural Health: Easy Ways to Keep Fruit Fresh