If you’re tired of your produce going bad after a few days, here are a few tips to keep it fresh.

 

1. Shop Smart

 

Keeping produce fresh starts with buying fresh produce in the first place. The fresher it is when you grab it off the shelf, the longer it’ll last once you take it home.

 

Produce at farmers markets are closer to the farm in terms of distance and time from harvest, but farmers market produce is not usually handled with proper temperature management, so it can sometimes be less fresh than chain grocery store produce.

 

So before you grab the first head of cabbage you see at your local market, ask the vendor how the products were stored and handled. Once you find a vendor you trust, stick with them. 

 

Finally, planning your meals ahead of time and shopping accordingly will better ensure you eat food when it’s at its peak. 

 

If you’re the type of person who goes to the grocery store twice a week, you can alternatively grab a second batch of fresh produce then. Whatever your preference, planning ahead is key. 

 

2. Set Your Fridge's Temperature and Humidity Properly

  

Proper refrigeration is important to keeping foods fresher for longer but if you come home from the grocery store and just toss your food anywhere in the fridge without a second thought, you might be unintentionally shortening its peak nutrient value. 

 

The USDA recommends you keep your refrigerator set below 40 degrees Fahrenheit to avoid foodborne illness, but you can go a little lower for optimal freshness. 

 

Set the temperature in your refrigerator to about 36 degrees Fahrenheit—basically as low as you can without freezing the lettuce (which freezes at just below 32 degrees Fahrenheit). Most refrigerators fluctuate both above and below the set point by a degree or two so you want it to be as low as possible without going to 32 degrees on the down cycle.

 

If your fridge doesn’t have a built-in thermometer, consider buying an appliance thermometer to make sure the fridge is getting to your desired temperature and not just in one spot, but throughout the whole fridge, since the temperature can vary between compartments. 

 

Also, to reduce wilting and shriveling, use the crisper drawers. If you have multiple drawers, they may be intended for different types of food or have humidity sliders you can set. In general, you want one drawer set to high humidity and one set to low, with wilt-prone vegetables in the high-humidity drawer, and rot-prone produce such as apples and zucchini in low humidity. 

 

Please keep in mind that some produce shouldn’t be stored in the fridge at all. Tomatoes, bananas, basil, mango, papaya, and other tropical fruits will lose quality when stored below room temperature, so leave those out on the counter for optimal freshness. Once you peel and slice them, though, they should go in the fridge. 

When it comes to your freezer, zero degrees Fahrenheit will keep your food safe to eat almost indefinitely but not all produce freezes well, so check out list of foods that will lose quality at freezing temperatures from the Center for Science in the Public Interest: https://www.cspinet.org/cspi-news/cold-hard-facts-about-frozen-foods

 

3. Storage

 

So if your lettuce won’t stop wilting, your goal should be to keep its moisture level high. Leave your produce in the plastic bags they provide at the grocery store before placing it in the drawer, so moisture doesn’t escape and you can also place a moistened paper towel in the produce drawer to increase its relative humidity. 

 

In addition, you’ll want to store certain produce closer (or farther away) from other fruits and vegetables to avoid over-ripening. 

 

As some fruits ripen, they produce ethylene, a gas that promotes both the ripening of those fruits plus aging of other fruits and vegetables. That includes apples, pears, avocados, bananas, kiwifruit, peaches, plums, and other ethylene-sensitive fruits, so you’ll want to keep those away from other produce to avoid damage. You can, however, use this to your advantage. 

 

“You can use the ethylene produced by ripening fruits like apples, avocados or bananas to speed up the ripening of other ethylene-producing fruits by putting them together in a loosely closed bag or in a fruit ripening bowl,” Brecht says. 

 

It can feel a bit like a bit of a challenge getting all your fruits and vegetables in their optimal storage spots, but you’ll get the hang of it. At the end of the day, planning your meals and shopping with a purpose is the best thing you can do. The more work you can do up front, the less often you’ll be disappointed by another head of wilted lettuce. 

 

And finally, the best tip of all…

 

 

4. The PureWave Cell

PureWave Cells are scientifically proven to kill and/or neutralize harmful bacteria and pathogens in food within minutes so placing this amazing device into your refrigerator or crisper will help your foods last longer, stay fresher and be much more nutrient rich - which means better value for your food dollar!

 

Bacteria and pathogens found in or on foods may come from certain agricultural practices, packaging and processing as well as shipping and length of travel time. All of these factors can impact the quality of your foods. Some forms of bacteria are actually a naturally occurring process in foods which is intended to break down matter so that it may bear seeds for regeneration and return to compost for natural fertilization.

 

Bacteria and pathogens are life forms that can destroy foods rather quickly by feeding on the vitamins and nutrients which will limit the benefits to your body.

 

By simply placing a PureWave Cell in your fridge or directly into the vegetable crisper for only a few minutes a day, your produce will stay fresher for longer and provide much better nutrient value for you and your family.

 

 

Now that’s a healthy tip for keeping foods fresher and longer and it’s so easy to do.

 

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