You’re healthy. You eat right and maintain a balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables. But when it comes to storing them, are you really getting the most out of their shelf life? There are a few common misconceptions floating around when it comes to the right way to store your fruits and vegetables, so today, we’re going to investigate how best to store your fruit and veg.
1) Tomatoes – they prefer room temperatures
The humble tomato is a staple ingredient in our V8 Original Juice, and one we’ve got to know very well over the years. The thing is, a lot of people store them incorrectly. To get the best flavour and consistency, tomatoes should be stored in temperatures of 6.6°C to 10°C according to a University of California study*. This is warmer than our fridges’ temperature, which sit at around of 1.6°C to 3.3°C. So rather than head to the fridge next time you bring in the shopping, try keep them at room temperature instead.
2) Apples – for the fruit bowl?
Have your apples in a bowl on your countertop? Well, unless you’re going to eat them within a week it’s actually best to store them in your refrigerator. Apples can last for up to a month when kept in the vegetable drawer of your fridge!
3) Potatoes – an apple a day could keep the sprouts away…
First of all, potatoes should not be kept in the fridge. The temperature is too cold and will turn their starches into sugar, affecting their taste when cooked. They should instead be stored in a cool, dark place.
Secondly, have you heard about the apple trick? Placing a ripe apple in with your potatoes is said to stop them from sprouting. Try it for yourself!
4) Pineapple – best upside down, even when they’re not a cake
By cutting the leaves off of your pineapples and turning them upside down, you allow the sugars to be transferred to the top of the pineapple, giving them a more consistent sweet taste throughout and making them ripen quicker. Now that’s a sweet trick.
5. Bananas – well, it depends on how you like them
How you store your bananas is dependent on what you want from them – do you want them to ripen quickly or do you want to slow the process? To ripen bananas quickly, place them in a paper bag, rolled shut. This traps the ethylene gases produced by bananas in the bag and encourages them to ripen.
If you want your bananas to remain fresher for longer, keeping them separated with their stems wrapped in cling film will make it harder for the ethylene gases to be released – so essentially doing the opposite of the paper bag trick – to keep them fresher for longer.
However, if you’re not fussed, one thing you can do is prevent ‘resting’ bruises, to do this, you should try to keep your bananas hanging, for instance on a kitchen banana tree.
So there you go! Do you do any of the methods mentioned above?
If you want an added boost of 100% natural fruit and veggie goodness, why not make V8 Original juice or V8 V-Fusion juice part of your daily routine? With 1 glass of V8 Original giving you an extra 1 of your 5 a day and V-Fusion a juicy 2 of your 5 a day, they’re an easy way to help you hit your 5 a day, every day.
* Source
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