How to Store Your Food So It Lasts Longer

in addition to placing leftovers in an airtight container which really just limits new air from getting in, is to place plastic wrap directly on top of the food to minimize air contact then place the lid. It helps my guacamole last twice as long.

So many products you buy promise great things without follow-though, but I find that the plastic "lettuce savers" really do extend the life of heads of lettuce. Bread keepers are pretty good, too.

I disagree somewhat about the oranges and tomatoes.

I tried keeping oranges in a cabinet, and they went moldy in less than a week. I've also had oranges I picked myself fresh from the tree (visiting near San Jose, CA) and they didn't taste any better than store oranges.

Refrigerating tomatoes doesn't damage them and does keep them longer. Most store tomatoes have been refrigerated. But refrigeration does change the taste. Get a couple of tomatoes from a neighbor who grows them. Put one in the fridge overnight. The next day, take it out and let it get to room temperature. Now taste both tomatoes. There is a noticeable difference.

You're absolutely right about the bananas. I've told this to many people, but no one believes it. :)

I like to store my cat in the refrigerator.

Hi Ibod Catooga!

Actually your cat will stay fresh much longer if you leave it on the sofa. Try storing your brain in the "chill" section of the fridge though, if you can find a container small enough to put it in.
Good luck to you.

I'm in your freezer stealing ure foodz

Lots of good ideas. Also when you scoop a spoon into a container for a dollop of something out of the fridge (yogurt, miso), make sure the spoon is clean. Otherwise, whatever food residue you introduce to the container will make that food go bad much faster.

No one ever mentions this, but I will..

Keep your fridge at 37 degrees - it'll make all your food last a really long time. Especially produce. Most people think that turning the temp up will save money on electricity. Yeah, maybe 1-2 bucks a month. But, you are throwing away lettuce probably 5 days before it needs to be thrown away. That's the worst one...lettuce. But, count all the other food that spoils quickly and see how much cash you throw out. I used to keep the temp up and always threw away food. But, someone told me to keep it at 37 degrees and now I'll always do it. The food tastes better too.

If you eat all your food, you don't have the worry of storing it!

Christopher, I hope you mean 37 degrees Fahrenheit! When I first read your comment I thought you meant 37 degrees Celsius - human body temperature!

Your tip on Protecting dry goods is nearly worthless. Storing huge bags of flour, rice, beans, cornmeal, or other staples in the refrigerator is not only wasting space and energy, but severely limiting your available storage space for dry goods. If pests are the problem, please find a solution to the pests, rather than simply holding to "put them in the fridge" as a catch all solution. Perhaps then you'd have advice that would be useful outside of our own wasteful country. What about people who cannot afford / choose to live without a fridge/freezer? That's most of the world, so you know.

To Ace Pincter for the comment. To each his own. My refrigerator is on and running even if I did not store these items in it so that my other food will not spoil. So I do not feel that I am waisting energy. I do not know of anyone in this day and time that does not have some type of refrigerator in their home.

where are you hiding your compassionate brain. There are millions of folks that do not have refrigerators or freezers or even food to worry about keeping. Just because you are lucky enough to have these things does not mean everyone is.

I imagine the people without refrigerators are not online looking for food storage tips.

Keeping your whole grain flour in the freezer will actually extend the life of the flour, which can go rancid eventually due to the oils in the grains. Also, the brown flour moths that will eventually infest your pantry if you leave your flour out come with the flour from the refinery as eggs, so keeping it in the freezer prevents the little suckers from maturing. Do sift your flour.

Actually, the best way to preserve food is to buy only as much as you need and to prepare only as much as you'll eat. Don't get me wrong, I like Americans, but the truth is they are hopeless consumers (not my thought, but generally true), and that is the real source of these kinds of problems... You won't see anyone in Romania arriving home with an SUV full of food (most of which he/she wouldn't need anyway).
I agree with most of the tips though; thanks for posting them.

And yes, we do have fridges/freezers here in Romania...

I agree with Mrs L, although no, she is not my wife or relative.

Those without refrigerators will not be looking online, and most of those tips work just as well for a cold storage room (Larder in England).

Good day all.

Mushrooms should not be stored in plastic - paper bags are better.

You can buy vegetable storage zip-lock bags with little perforations to vent moisture. These keep my greens lasting longer. Maybe this is what the earlier poster meant by lettuce storage bags.

I have a few tips:
1. Buy only the food you'll eat
2. Eat the food that you bought

Enuf said.

The bananas keep better in the fridge when wraped in Bubble wrap, they stay yellow and the inside stays clean, also they taste even better.

Agree about the need to store carefully but ethylene is a gas purposely used to give fruits that ripened look and to my knowledge is not emitted by the fruit.

i'm appalled that some people never figured out the economies of scale when it comes to buying certain things in bulk.

Ethylene is given off by fruit, as well as other plant parts that are reaching the end of their lifespan. The food industry exposes fruits to ethylene to encourage ripening (or at least the appearance of ripening).

To Liza, #22.

"1. Buy only the food you'll eat
2. Eat the food that you bought"

That works, unless you are in a small dorm room with no refridgeration, the dining plan you are required to sign up for is way out of line, and you can't buy your bread and jam two servings at a time.

Still trying to eat and not waste.

does anyone know how long watermelon keeps when its not in the fridge?
and what about if its only the rind, and is covered in white glue??

just for the record: food preservation is an ancient practice. some techniques: covering in salt, oil or vinegar, smoking, dehidrating... in "civilized" countries nowadays these techniques sound more like "fancy cooking" and not "preservation" but they are still used in many countries and won't ever be obsolete...

and yes, i agree with #14 by B.Boynton: millions of people on this planet don't have to worry about food preservation because they happen to have NO FOOD...
let's consider ourselves fortunate and don't waste.

i've really enjoyed this conversation panel
thank you all for sharing.

@ Ace Pincter #12:

Actually, the more stuff you have in your refrigerator, the better. Filling it up saves energy rather than wasting it.

# Induces seed germination
# Stimulates fruit ripening
# Induces flowering in pineapples
Tomatoes, bananas, and apples will ripen faster in the presence of ethylene. Bananas placed next to other fruits will produce enough ethylene to cause accelerated fruit ripening. Ethylene will shorten the shelf life of cut flowers and potted plants.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethylene
donate to Wikipedia

Dry goods do well in those locking plastic containers that have four locking tabs and rubber gaskets.

Rebecca makes a good point about more cold mass in the fridge means the fridge works less to keep it cool. I use beer bottles instead :) Also, I keep my fridge at a chilly 32F, just enough that most stuff won't freeze...barely.

Fridge thermometer is one of four essential kitchen thermometers, the others being oven thermometer, quick-read digital and roasting/timing with probe.

Question for #20 Andrew M...
Where can you can buy vegetable storage zip-lock bags with little perforations? I have not been able to find them???

to #33. if you can't find perforated bags, make some. Here's how...
Step 1. Remove new ziploc bag from dispenser
Step 2. Pick up clean fork with right hand (left if you are left-handed)
Step 3. Grasp Baggie with other hand
Step 4. Carefully use fork to poke holes in Baggie.
Step 5. Repeat step 4 until desired number of holes have been made.

Alternate methods: Use scissors to snip little holes. You can fold the baggie like an accordian and cut mulitple holes at once. Much more efficient than previous method, but requires some dexterity and origami skills. :-)

Hey Babs, You are hillarious. I cracked up reading your comment.
I like the comments. informative and occasionally funny..:)

" What about people who cannot afford / choose to live without a fridge/freezer? That's most of the world, so you know."

I'm sure they're checking the Internet for tips on how to store their food.

The bananas in the fridge is a great idea . Ive done it for years. But i recently found out that if the bananas are together in a bunch they will ripen more quickly. But if you seperate each banana it will not ripen as fast. Give it a try and see.

Try 1 or 2 whole bay leaves right in the flour or beans. It won\'t change the flavor of the food, and keeps beetles away very well.

Considering that everyone seems to think that there are no fridgeless people online, I\'ll give some of the tips that I know:
1. Most food is already well preserved straight from the store, it\'s been sitting on those shelves for weeks after all. Fruit, condiments, and dry goods need no special storage at all (besides a cool, dark cupboard), if they\'re eaten in a reasonable amount of time (a week or so for fruit, a month or so for condiments). Eggs and yogurt will also last at least a week out of the fridge.
2. Well-cooked food is sterile. Immediately putting it in an airtight container will prevent spoilage for quite a while. If it\'s something that\'s used in portions, always use a clean utensil to remove it. This applies to many goods in jars as well, such as jelly (and I hear even mayonnaise!).
3. Refrigeration and freezing are only one set of methods for food preservation. Others, which are too involved to describe in a comment are: fermentation, pickling, drying/smoking, canning, and salting/sugaring.

And of course the best advice is to not need to store it at all! Buy only what you need for a week, eat leftovers the next day, and plan your meals based on what you have at hand to use up.

For everyone who has taking the micky out of the people who dont have a fridge. Why don't you offer some advice. As thats excatley what i was searching for! I am about to travel across Australia and need to find a way of having decent food that i can just heat up.

Not too suprisingly there arent many fridges in my car or in the outback....

PS if you were one of the unhelpful people having a go then please offer advice or you can just (inset appropriate swear word here) off

ps my spelling is rubbish as its 2am :)

You can wrap a head of lettuce in a paper towel and keep that in a plastic bag and it\'ll last pretty much 2x longer.

I would like to dehidrate my tomatoes, does anyone know how?

I have 50 pounds of cornmeal to store. I use it regularly. I canned it in one=gallon cans, but now I hear it will go bad. What do I do?

I too would like to know about dehydrating tomatoes.
Now, for all of you that say, buy only what you need and use it. I don't think that is wise. In today's economy I think we all need to be responsible and store enough food to feed our families in times of emergencies and disasters and in case of future shortages and rising food prices. Some people believe in storing food for 6 months to a year. These people are responsible and good planners. When tough times come, and they are coming, they will be able to feed their families and have the resources. What is the Boy Scout motto? Be Prepared! The worth of the American dollar is going to continue to go down. Better to make good plans now and be able to feed and care for yourself and your family. God bless!

As an American living in Greece it is fascinating to see how people shop and store their food, considering the high percentage of produce used in the diet. First of all, they frequently shop at huge outdoor markets once a week, buying a what would look like a massive amount of fruits and vegetables to an American. For example, most Greeks make fresh orange juice almost every day during the winter. So, you can imagine the number of oranges they buy. Needless to say, one cannot fill half a refrigerator with oranges--they don\'t have massive America-style refrigerators--and I don\'t think anyone would consider it anyway. They usually put half of them outside on a little veranda or just the step outside their door and the rest are inside, out on a counter. (People do not heat their homes here the way they do in America so it is generally comfortable but not very warm inside. Cool enough for oranges to last several days. They definitely get eaten up; they never sit there to rot.) They usually buy (in the winter) broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, beets (with massive tops), romaine lettuce, spring onions, a LOT of lemons, apples, and more. You can see that you cannot fill a small or medium-sized refrigerator with all these things. You have to choose. So, most of these items are not stored in the fridge upon return from the market. What I\'ve learned to do is put fragile items like lettuce and beet tops in the fridge right away and put the rest outside or in a cool spot (I have a pantry). Then each day as I use something from my fridge and I have more room, I add something that I didn\'t have room for right when I returned from the market trip. I\'ve found that cauliflower is OK outside the fridge for a couple of days but broccoli is much better in. So once I\'ve eaten most of the lettuce, I then put in the cauliflower that was sitting outside for a couple of days, unless I am eating the cauliflower that day. If you try to limit shopping trips, as I do, you can be like a detective for a few weeks at the start of each new season, to see what works in terms of storage. You just have to observe carefully and then realize how much you can buy based on what room you have in your fridge and what must be stored in there. I looked at it sort of like a game (but a serious one) and I\'ve gotten much better at it.

There was absolutely no waste when I lived in India. Food was considered \"Purnabrahma\", completel identifiable with the Creator and nourishing the body was considered a holy ritual.

It was cooked fresh daily for each meal and leftovers were given to those who couldn\'t afford it. Wasting food was considered a sin.

In America, this land of plenty, we waste food while unknown millions go without nutritious food. Yes, they get enough food to plug their arteries with hamburgers, donuts, and corn syrups.

Sure, transportation infrastructure and storage facilities keep food viable for a long time, but the freshness and vitamins of locally picked food are lost. Imagine juice that lasts for months and produce that is picked up unripe and finishes ripening en route in huge trucks.

I think it\'s time to go back to basics while storing food. Grain stored sealed containers in Harappa and Mohenjodaro could still be sprouted after five thousand years. Middle income people in India who can afford to buy grains such as rice, wheat, legumes, and beans for a year, put it in metal containers (with about 100 pound capacity) and seal it tightly. They grind grains into flour as they need them fresh, enough for a few weeks. No problems with brown moths!

Lemons, raw mangoes, and vegetables like carrots are pickled and shared with friends and family. Abundance of lemons finds itself in bottles filled with lemon syrup to which cardamon is added and is used to quench thirst in hot summers.

Leftover vegetables are turned into little pancake by spreading them in sun and either fried for a savory snack or used in soup.

After coming to America, I am beginning to appreciate the frugal ways of my people and their reverence for everything useful that is animate and inanimate that protects and conserves. Yes, holy cow and completely divine food, if such designation ensures food for all, I am all for it.

Hey


You should store your food properly so that it wont go bad. Wash your hands every time when touching food, with hot water and soap. Always us paper towel all the time.

All this talk about refrigerators... what about the freezer? What works and what doesn't? I freeze pretty much any fruit, and sometimes eat it months later, tastes fine, but maybe it isn't. I'm freezing a squash right now, says you don't recommend refrigerating it, so how about freezing it? I also didn't hear anybody mention lemons, i understand they have food preserving qualities.

This is a wonderful conversation, I appreciate hearing from those in Greece, India, but all this America bashing is misguided. People all over the world are succumbing to tv popcorn culture, and yes, we created it, but jeez, we also got stuck with it. My grandma remembers when store-bought cookies came out, and she was embarrassed that her kids had to eat home-made oven-baked cookies because she couldn\'t afford the ones at the supermarket. Americans are the ones that had to live through this kind of madness, and we\'re only just now beginning to get back to our roots. Ehhh, but go ahead, we can take it.

Any comments on those new green veggie storage bags being advertised?

Hi, Don't know if this has been addressed yet here. There are people who live in rural areas that buy in quanity to save time,resources and money. Being able to store fresh food a little longer means that I can eat them more often.

If you keep your bananas in an airtight jar they won't turn brown as fast either. You can store bananas in the refrigerator.

Should stew be allowed to cool on the store or refrigerated when it\'s done?

i am still in doubt regarding the storage of bananas. Maybe i should try it out sometime.