7 Ways To Keep Your Veggies Fresher For Longer

There’s nothing worse than buying beautiful fresh veg and then having it go bad before we get a chance to use it. When it comes to food wastage, it isn’t good for our wallets and it’s certainly not good for the planet. Did you know that food waste is a huge contributor to our carbon footprint and can have a detrimental impact towards the environment? With this in mind, we can see how important it is to keep our veggies fresher for longer so we have the time to use them up and gain the benefits of these nutritious foods.

Knowing how to properly store our fresh produce really makes a difference when it comes to helping it last. Along with this, there are also certain products and strategies we can use to extend their freshness. We’ve put together 7 ways to help keep your veggies fresher for longer and get more out of their goodness:

Keep things in their correct places

Certain vegetables belong in the fridge, while others are fine to be stored in the pantry or on the kitchen counter. Knowing which veggies need to go where can be a helpful way to ensure they lasts as long as possible.

Some vegetables need to stay in dark places to prevent sprouting, this includes red and brown onions, garlic and all types of potatoes, which is why you’ll commonly see these stored at the bottom of the pantry. These veg thrive in cool, dark places and can generally be kept longer than some of the more leafy veg.

There’s one vegetable (which is technically a fruit) that can be stored on the kitchen counter, which is tomato. You can keep these in your fruit basket, just don’t leave them sitting in the direct sunshine. Be sure to keep any ripe bananas away from other fruit and veg, this is because they release a gas that can increase the speed at which the surrounding produce ripens.

Most other veg can be stored in the crisper of your fridge. The crisper is designed to have the perfect conditions to keep your vegetables fresher for longer. You may have noticed the difference if you’ve every stored your veggies on the shelves of the fridge, only to have them dry out quite quickly.

Keep your vegetables away from your fruit

Many fruits release a gas called ethylene or ethene, which accelerates the ripening process of other fresh produce around it. For this reason, it can be beneficial to keep your fruit and veg seperate. This is easy If you have two crisper draws in your fridge - simply make one for fruit and the other for veg. If you’ve only got one crisper draw, there are other ways around it. You can store things in containers or silicone bags (read on for more information), or you can designate one side of the draw to your fruit and the other to your veg.

Use silicone storage bags when needed

Silicone storage bags work particularly well for storing smaller, loose vegetables or things that come in bunches. Whether you’re putting your Brussel sprouts, green beans or snow peas inside one of these bags, or using it to store chopped up vegetables, they can be a convenient storage solution.

Silicone storage bags can also be useful if you need to place vegetables on the shelves of the fridge rather than the crisper. This is because they can protect the contents from drying out and as a result help them stay fresher for longer.

The best thing about silicone storage bags is that they’re reusable and plastic free. This makes them a better storage solution for the planet and for our health. Here’s one example for you to try:

Little Mashies Reusable Food Silicone Storage Bag

Make the most of sustainable food wraps

Let’s be honest, cling wrap can be incredibly helpful when it comes to storage and keeping things fresh. However, knowing how bad it is for the environment and the detrimental impact of plastic towards our health is definitely a deterrent. Thankfully there are now more sustainable options that come with none of the side effects. We’re talking about beeswax wraps, silicone food wraps and compostable cling wrap, all of which make it easy to wrap our fresh produce up to keep it fresh. This type of storage solution is most helpful when the vegetable has been chopped and we want to put the rest back into the fridge for another meal.

Here are three different types of sustainable food wraps you can try:

APIWRAPS Reusable Beeswax Wraps - Kitchen Basics

Little Mashies Reusable Stretch Silicone Food Wrap - Mixed Pack

Compostic Compostable Cling Wrap

Make friends with paper towels

While paper towels may seem like a strange thing to help keep our produce fresher for longer, there is method to the madness. Paper towels can play an important role in the correct storage of herbs. Woody herbs like thyme, rosemary and sage are best stored wrapped in a damp paper towel, inside a sealed container. Herbs can bring a great flavour to our healthy dishes, while adding their own nutritional properties. As a commonly wasted food, knowing how two store fresh herbs can really help prevent food wastage and ensure we’re making the most of them.

Get started with storing your herbs correctly with our favourite paper towels:

Who Gives A Crap Bamboo Paper Towels

Use storage containers and jars where needed

Storage containers and jars can be helpful when we have chopped up veg that we want to store. Maybe you’ve sliced up some veggie sticks for the week ahead or pre-chopped some veg that you’re planning to roast, storing them in a container will help prevent them from drying out and will keep it fresher for longer.

When it comes to storage containers, we recommend those that are made from stainless steel or glass. This is because plastic contains substances known as xenoestrogens, which can negatively impact our hormonal balance. So, when we store our produce in plastic containers, there’s the chance that these chemicals can leech into our food. It’s an easy swap that can lead to better health.

Check out these stainless steel and glass storage containers we’re loving:

Ever Eco Stainless Steel Bento Box

Eat To Live Glass Storage Jar with Wooden Lid

Freeze your veggies when necessary

If you’ve had a vegetable sitting there for a while, or you know you’re not going to be able to use it before it starts to go bad, simply pop it in the freezer. Freezing vegetables is a great way to help them last longer and ensure they don’t go to waste. Another great thing about freezing things is that it keeps the nutrients in tact for longer than it would if you left them to sit in the fridge. Having frozen veg on hand is also convenient if you haven’t made it to the shops for your weekly fresh produce shop. You’ll never have to have a meal without vegetables if there’s always some there in the freezer ready to be cooked.

These 7 ways to keep your veggies fresher for longer will help save many veggies the dreaded fate of ending up rotten in the bin. Considering vegetables should be a large part of our meals and the food we consume, it’s so important to know how to store them and be able to optimise the nutrients we get from them. Enjoy stocking up on some storage solutions and optimising your vegetable storage!