Leafy greens, berries, root vegetables, and mushrooms stay fresh longer when refrigerated. Keeping them in 0-4°C or humidity adjusted freshness compartments extends their shelf life even more.
When you come back from the store with bags full of beautifully fresh produce, you have a dilemma: where should you keep them so that their freshness lasts for days, or even weeks?
Below are a few tips to help you.
Best kept refrigerated
It is also advisable to keep apples and ripe pears inside the fridge to ensure ultimate crispness. Just bear in mind that these fruits produce ethylene gas, which makes other fruit and veg ripen faster, so keep them separate. This is especially relevant when you’re storing cabbages, cauliflower, and broccoli in the fridge because they love the cool humidity but are very ethylene sensitive.
Team countertop
When we’re talking about countertops, we mean a place in your kitchen where there’s no direct sunlight or a heat source nearby. These conditions are best for bananas, mangoes, citrus fruit, avocadoes, watermelons, pineapples, and eggplants. Just remember to keep the bananas and mangoes separate as they produce ethylene gas.
Tomatoes are also best kept on your counter. Storing them in the fridge can make them less flavorful and create a mealy texture.
If you want to ripen your stone fruits, such as peaches, nectarines, and plums, let them sit on the counter too. However, if you bring them home perfectly ripe, put them in the fridge right away so that they stay fresh as long as possible.
The cool and dark zones
Allowing potatoes to sit in the light will make them sprout and keeping them in the fridge will turn some of their starches into sugar. That is why it is best to keep them in a cool dark area. The same goes for sweet potatoes and winter squashes like pumpkins, butternuts, and acorns.
While onions don’t mind the light that much, it is recommended to keep them in a cool dark place too. However, they produce ethylene gas, so make sure to keep them away from your spuds!
So that’s it – we hope our guide cleared things up a little for you. And if you’d like to try out a more modern approach to fridge, check out smart fridges with Home Connect.
