The recommendation I received was to store produce the same way your grocery store does. They've spent a lot of time and effort on this, so their method probably works. Sorry I can't address the real meat of your question though.
I favor storing chilled any produce that's chilled when sold, which includes most green vegetables, at least around here. Plus berries because I'm desperate to keep them from going moldy inside 48hrs, assuming they aren't already moldy when I get them home.
Fruit, not so much. That pile of apples in the drawer is just a waste of fridge space.
Throwing a bunch of produce together in large masses is generally a very good way of getting it to rot. Having it shipped, individually wrapped bundles in moisture controlled plastic bags, inside of larger containers, now that works.
Shouldn't they store things like vegetable seeds or other products you can grow yourself so you're not worried about shelf life, it takes less space and is healthier?
Welcome have some types of produce that is stored for long periods of time and lose nutrients during storage. For example, apples that you buy in the store tend to me more than a year old.
> Find out how to store fruits and vegetables so they stay fresh longer inside or outside your refrigerator.
That was my first thought when I opened the website. I kind of expected to see the answer to this on the site, not a tip this general, or maybe a reference to look it up.
I suspect that is for farmers or grocers that want to store a harvest for extended periods of time, even into the spring after fall harvest. I guess some amount of mealiness is hard to avoid in that case but it would be mitigated in a controlled humidity and gas environment as recommended. If you do all of those things you can bring them to room temp and expect them to last a few days on your customer's counter.
This method definitely keeps things fresh (no pun intended)! My kids are really good about eating fresh produce but I've noticed that they also appreciate rotating new things in every few weeks/months.
Use plastic bags or containers to keep vegetables fresh in the fridge. Things like carrots dry out in no time in a fridge but stay usable for weeks if you simply keep them in a plastic bag. I've thrown away vegetables for years before figuring this out.
Try storing food that way for a few months. The results aren't pretty. What survives are carbs. All the vitamins are gone. You have carrots suitable for pottage, not salad. Seeds (peas, nuts, grains etc) can indeed be stored but they too are just blobs of carbs. When we talk about "eating vegetables" we don't mean porridge and dried nuts. Scurvy was a thing for a reason.
Wow, this is very interesting! Thanks for sharing. I've never heard of controlled atmosphere before but it makes sense. I always wondered how so much produce could always ben in a fresh state.
Doing daily harvesting isn't that unlikely also not everything is harvested at same hour of the day. And storing inventory is open for just few hours doesn't spoil the veggies.
sorry i don't off hand :(. mostly it was trial, error, and googling. If i buy something from costco and it doesn't last i would try different was to store it and if none work just stopped buying it. really only couldn't get blackberries and raspberries to keep long thou.
suggest getting commercial food storage bins, they stack and can seal in moisture, great for storing something like sliced peppers. Don't just toss everything in with the package they came in, do a little prep and get them in better containers. If things go moldy paper towel does wonders to manage moisture.
as for vacpack i got a good commercial one, and then put it in another room out of the way. i prep in the kitchen then i take it over to seal. it would be a lot of counter space but its not so bad in the corner of my office. Also i only use it for ingredients like meat. soups and sauces i just toss in glasslocks and freeze as they seem to do just fine that way.
My guess is pretty well. Basically humidity and light are the biggest enemies.
During the peak pandemic craziness we’d buy more fresh produce than normal and keep in a dark corner, even stuff like lettuce lasted for a week without any loss of flavor and no apparent ill effects.
I think a lot of supermarket fruit and veg is picked underripe, and then ripening is induced in a controlled environment in some warehouse a few hours before it's sent to the shops, so that it's "perfectly" ripe as it's placed on display for sale.
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