What is the best way to store fresh fruit, and how long will it keep?!
What is the best way to store fresh fruit, and how long will it keep?
I like eating fruit like strawberries, but they seem to go bad in a few days. I don't eat them quickly enough.
Is there a way to make fruit last longer? Especially bananas and strawberries.
Answers:
Fruit and vegetables should be handled carefully to avoid bruising and breakages of the skin. Such damage will encourage deterioration and rotting.
Most fresh produce is temperature sensitive and should be stored in the coolest part of the house when refrigerated space is not available. Some produce, particularly those from the tropics, e.g. pineapple and bananas, are chill sensitive and should not be stored in the refrigerator.
To reduce shriveling or wilting due to water loss, keep leafy and root vegetables, e.g. silver beet, broccoli, carrots and parsnips, in perforated plastic bags, preferably in the refrigerator.
By removing leafy tops from carrots, parsnips, turnips and beetroot, their storage life can be extended to many weeks or even several months in the refrigerator. Keep potatoes in a cool, dark, well ventilated place to avoid `greening' and sprouting; remove from plastic bags and place in a strong paper bag, box or in a wire or plastic bin.
Sweet potatoes are cold sensitive and should not be kept in the fridge.
Cool apples, pears, stone fruits and strawberries on the refrigerator shelves, and then place into perforated plastic bags in the refrigerator. This reduces sweating (water forming inside the bag). During spring and summer the shelf life of apples at room temperature is only short. If possible remove them from refrigeration just before eating.
Keep nectarines, peaches and plums in the refrigerator, unless you want to ripen them.
Pears are best kept in the refrigerator. They keep well green and hard. Store at room temperature to ripen them.
Citrus fruits, cucumbers, passionfruit, capsicums and eggplant lose water easily during refrigerated storage. Waxing or wrapping in shrinkwrap helps reduce water loss.
Different varieties of a fruit often have better keeping qualities than others at a given storage temperature. For example, Fuerte avocados will not keep beyond about three weeks in the refrigerator, whereas other varieties, such as Hass, will keep up to six weeks. Also, some varieties of apples (e.g. Granny Smith and Fuji) have more than three times the storage life of others.
Tomatoes should be ripened at room temperature, away from direct sunlight. They ripen best in mildly warm temperatures. When fully ripe, especially in hot weather, they may be stored in the refrigerator for several days. However, they will gradually lose flavour and some soft areas may develop in the flesh.
Rockmelon, pineapple, paw paw, bananas, mangoes, avocados, stone fruit, tomatoes and pears need to be ripened at room temperatures. They can then be refrigerated for a short time. Fruit ripening can be accelerated by keeping unripe fruit with passionfruit and ripe apples.
To reduce mould growth in onions, whole pumpkin, marrows and squashes, store at room temperature under dry conditions, in a net or loose.
If storing large amounts of fruit, remove overripe and injured fruit regularly as these will trigger ripening and subsequent aging in the remaining fruit. Also remove any rotting fruit as infection can spread to other fruit.
The longer keeping kinds of produce can be stored for shorter periods at temperatures higher than the optimum listed in the table. Generally, however, the life of a commodity is reduced rapidly at temperatures above the optimum.