These Products Actually Keep My Produce From Going Bad
No more throwing out rotten tomatoes and brown bananas!
When fruits and veggies fill the produce section of the grocery store, it’s hard to keep yourself from buying everything in sight. From peaches and watermelon to all the berries, it can be tempting to fill up your basket with three pounds of strawberries, four peaches and six bananas you just can't finish in one week. Just me? Okay. While I've tried to get my daily dose of fruits and veggies, I still find myself with leftovers that go to waste come Week Two. That's why I put a bunch of produce savers to the test — and luckily, found some that really work!
To make sure you can save your produce (and reduce your food waste), too, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite products that actually help maintain freshness. Whether you’re storing the fruits and veggies in the fridge or on the countertop, we’ve got everything you need to have the most produce-packed week yet.
Pro tip: These products are also total lifesavers if you've joined a CSA or Farm Share!
More often than not, you’re buying produce at different stages of ripeness. So, if half of your avocados, apples and peaches are ready to eat but the rest still need some time, let us suggest the Just Ripe Fruit Bowl — the best way to make sure you’re getting the most out of every bite. Anything that is ready-to-eat goes on the top of the wooden tray, and the under-ripe produce is stored in the vented glass bowl underneath. Not to mention, it makes a beautiful countertop decoration!
Designed with freshness in mind, these produce savers keep your berries, watermelon and any other refrigerated produce from spoilage longer than your standard plastic containers. According to Rubbermaid, the "CrispTray" on the bottom helps separate produce from moisture while the "FreshVent" regulates oxygen and carbon dioxide flow.
Just because some fruit needs to be stored on your countertop doesn’t mean it also needs to have a short shelf life. Enter, these countertop containers by Rubbermaid. By regulating the flow of oxygen and carbon dioxide, the company claims these clear produce-savers will extend the life of your apples and tomatoes by keeping moisture out and freshness in. We found they did just that.
With sizing options for produce of any shape and size including avocados, apples, tomatoes and cucumbers, these silicone huggers grip to your half-eaten fruits and vegetables to extend their shelf life.
If you’re dedicated to that glass countertop fruit bowl you’ve had forever, here’s a way to keep produce fresh without changing your kitchen aesthetic. Infused with organic spices, the company claims these sheets will naturally double or quadruple the life of your produce. Use them to line bowls, Ziploc bags and the drawers of your fridge to prevent spoilage and maintain freshness for up to a month.
Not only are these bags a sustainable alternative to plastic produce bags — seriously, brings these with you to the grocery store! — they also work double-duty to keep your carrots, celery and greens as crisp and fresh as possible. Dampen the bags first before filling with veggies, then keep them stored in the fridge to ensure a perfect texture.
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