It’s crucial for our health to be eating lots of vegetables and fruits, this is a daily requirement for everyone’s wellbeing, but when purchasing fresh veggies and fruits, do you end up throwing away more than you eat at times? Well if yes, don’t worry you’re not alone.

In fact, “an average person in Europe generates around 1.2kg of waste a day, which is less than half the per capita waste generation of 2.7kg per day in the UAE.

Storing fresh veggies and fruits in your refrigerator is a little more complicated than you can imagine. In order to prevent spoilage, there are certain foods that should not be stored together, while there are certain foods that are safe to keep on out countertops.

How I currently store my food (For 2).

 

 

 

Best ways to store your food in your Refrigerator

• Keeps fruits and vegetables separate, either in different shelves or draws
• Dry your mint leaves, coriander or spinach with a kitchen towel and them wrap them in parchment papers (you can even label them)
• When storing organic herbs make sure you store them upright in a glass of water and cover with a plastic bag on top.
• Keep your berries in a well-ventilated box, or a box with holes.
• Cucumbers should be wiped individually with a kitchen tissue towel and then wrapped together in a kitchen tissue or plastic cling wrap, this absorbs their
• moisture and prevents rotting
• Halved Onion should be wrapped in plastic or in a sealed plastic bag
• Lettuce and green salads should be stored in plastic containers, with a kitchen tissue towel layered inside to absorb moisture
• Chives and spring onions should be wrapped in plastic wrap
• If you have a temperature control compartment where you can store either veggies or meat, you can store your sausages or kebabs here.
• Cheddar cheese should be in wrapped in parchment paper and kept in a sealed plastic bag
• Fruits should be kept in the lower draw away from vegetables.

Ethylene is a gas given out by fruits and vegetables, a harmless, odorless and tasteless gas. All fruits and vegetables produce ethylene but there are certain fruits and vegetables that produce ethylene in greater quantity, when these food are kept together or in close proximity they speed up the ripening process. Which might explain why some of our foods ripe faster or spoil within 2 weeks.

There are Ethylene sensitive veggies and fruits are very sensitive to ethylene gas and will ripen more quickly should they be placed with ethylene producing veggies and fruits.

Follow the information below to better understand your fruits and veggies.

Ethylene producing fruits and vegetables

• Apricots
• Cantaloupes
• Mangoes
• Peaches
• Tomatoes
• Avocados
• Pears
• Bananas
• Papayas
• Plums

Ethylene-sensitive veggies and fruits

• Apples
• Carrots
• Green beans
• Squash
• Asparagus
• Cucumbers
• Lettuce
• Watermelons
• Brocolli
• Eggplants
• Potatoes

So make sure you don’t keep the above mentioned together, as this can quicken the ripening process. You could use this for your benefit to ripen some fruits faster such as may be for example to ripe an unripe avocado, place it in a bag with an apple, this will help ripe the avocado faster.

Food is expensive these days, and remember there are a lot of people who can’t afford to waste their food if your able to follow the list above you should be able to eat your required servings for a day without letting all the healthy food go to waste.

Stay Healthy!