Spoiled Rotten: How to Make Your Fruits and Vegetables Last

Here is a helpful article by Shelly Levitt on when to eat and how to best store your produce to harness their maximum life spans:

Spoiled Rotten

Americans throw out 25 percent of the produce they buy because it’s gone bad. How to stop the waste? Know when to shop, learn which fruits and veggies don’t get along and which ones to keep out of the fridge.
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Perhaps you do it once a week. Perhaps only when you trace those sulfurous odors to your refrigerator’s crisper drawers. But eventually, you toss out spoiled vegetables and fruits. Lots of them. Researchers at the University of Arizona recently spent a year tracking families’ food-use habits. Working with the United States Department of Agriculture, they interviewed the families about their eating habits, collected their grocery receipts, watched them prepare meals, and then sifted through every last discarded lettuce leaf, slice of bread, burger and bean.

The results, reported in 2002, were pretty shocking. The families tossed out an average of 470 pounds of food per year—about 14 percent of all food brought into the home—at an annual cost of $600. Every day, they discarded more than half a pound of fruits and veggies. In total, Americans chuck a quarter of all the produce they buy, mostly because it’s gone bad, says Timothy Jones, PhD, contemporary archaeologist at the University of Arizona. Nationally, we dump $43 billion worth of food every year.

Wasting produce is, well, a waste—bad for our wallets and bad for the environment. Plus, who wants to make a salad when confronted with a bin of rotting sludge? All this led us to ask: How can we keep produce fresh longer?

The ABCs of Fresh
“The main way to lengthen shelf life is by using cold temperatures to slow food’s respiration, or ‘breathing’ process,” explains Marita Cantwell, PhD, a postharvest specialist at the University of California, Davis. In general, the warmer the temperature, the faster the rate of respiration, which is why refrigeration is critical for most produce. But while you want to slow it down, you don’t want to stop the breathing altogether. “The worst thing to do is seal produce in an airtight bag,” says Barry Swanson, a food scientist at Washington State University. “You’ll suffocate it and speed up decay.” Some fruits emit ethylene, an odorless, colorless gas that speeds ripening and can lead to the premature decay of nearby ethylene-sensitive vegetables. Put spinach or kale in the same bin as peaches or apples, and the greens will turn yellow and limp in just a couple of days. So the fi rst trick is to separate produce that emits ethylene from produce that’s sensitive to it. (See “Gas Wars,” below).

There are also some innovations to help extend the life of your fruits and veggies. Some products actually absorb ethylene and can be dropped into a crisper, such as the E.G.G. (for ethylene gas guardian), which is shaped like, you guessed it, an egg, and ExtraLife, a hockey-puck-like disk. A variety of produce bags are also on the market, such as those by Evert- Fresh and BioFresh, which both absorb ethylene and create an atmosphere that inhibits respiration.

At least as important as how you store produce is when you buy it. Do all your other shopping fi rst so that your berries and broccoli don’t get warm—and respire rapidly— while you’re picking up nonperishable items. Get the produce home and into the fridge as soon as possible. If you’ll be making several stops between the market and kitchen, put a cooler in the car. Shop farmers’ markets soon after they open: Just-harvested greens wilt rapidly once they’ve been in the sun for a few hours.

Even under optimal conditions, fragile raspberries will never last as long as thick-skinned oranges. Eat more perishable items fi rst (see “Fastest to Slowest Spoilers,” right). And if you still find yourself with a bushel of ripe produce—and a business trip around the bend—improvise. Make a fruit pie, a potful of soup or a great big vat of tomato sauce, and throw it in the freezer. You’ll relish your foresight when you get home.

Gas Wars
If you notice that your produce always seems to rot just a few days after you buy it, you might be storing incompatible fruits and veggies together. Those that give off high levels of ethylene gas—a ripening agent—will speed the decay of ethylene-sensitive foods. Keep the two separate.

Use trapped ethylene to your advantage: To speed ripen a peach, put it in a closed paper bag with a ripe banana. One bad apple really can spoil the whole bunch. Mold proliferates rapidly and contaminates everything nearby, so toss any spoiled produce immediately.

For longer life, keep your produce whole—don’t even rip the stem out of an apple until you eat it. “As soon as you start pulling fruits and vegetables apart,” says Barry Swanson, a food scientist at Washington State University, “you’ve broken cells, and microorganisms start to grow.” Cold-sensitive fruits and veggies lose fl avor and moisture at low temperatures. Store them on the counter, not in the fridge. Once they’re fully ripe, you can refrigerate them to help them last, but for best fl avor, return them to room temp.

Never refrigerate potatoes, onions, winter squash or garlic. Keep them in a cool, dark, dry cabinet, and they can last up to a month or more. But separate them so their flavors and smells don’t migrate.

REFRIGERATE THESE GAS RELEASERS
Apples, Apricots, Cantaloupe, Figs, Honeydew

DON’T REFRIGERATE THESE GAS RELEASERS
Avocados, Bananas (unripe), Nectarines, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Tomatoes

KEEP THESE AWAY FROM ALL GAS RELEASERS
Bananas (ripe), Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Cabbage, Carrots, Caulifl ower, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Lettuce and other leafy greens, Parsley, Peas, Peppers, Squash, Sweet potatoes, Watermelon

Fastest to Slowest Spoilers: What to Eat First
With proper storage and a little planning, you can enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables with just a single weekly trip to the supermarket. The key is eating the more perishable produce early on. Use this guide—created with the help of Marita Cantwell, PhD, postharvest specialist at the University of California, Davis—based on a Sunday shopping trip. The timing suggestions are for ready-to-eat produce, so allow extra days for ripening if you’re buying, say, green bananas or not-quite-ripe pears. And remember, looks count. Appearance—vivid green spinach; smooth, unbruised peaches; plump oranges—is the best clue to whether fruits and veggies are fresh to begin with.

EAT FIRST: SUNDAY TO TUESDAY
Artichokes
Asparagus
Avocados
Bananas
Basil
Broccoli
Cherries
Corn
Dill
Green beans
Mushrooms
Mustard greens
Strawberries
Watercress

EAT NEXT: WEDNESDAY TO FRIDAY
Arugula
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Grapes
Lettuce
Lime
Mesclun
Pineapple
Zucchini


EAT LAST: WEEKEND
Apricots
Bell peppers
Blueberries
Brussels sprouts
Cauliflower
Grapefruit
Leeks
Lemons
Mint
Oranges
Oregano
Parsley
Peaches
Pears
Plums
Spinach
Tomatoes
Watermelon

AND BEYOND
Apples
Beets
Cabbage
Carrots
Celery
Garlic
Onions
Potatoes
Winter squash