How to Keep Fresh Produce Happy and Healthy for Longer

Knowing how best to store items is an valuable food skill: it makes the most of your food budget; cuts food wastage; can stop you running out of space in the fridge and makes ingredients taste their best.

If you buy something from the Crunchy and it’s not right when you get it home - e.g. bad berries, an avocado that’s black inside - please do just bring it back and we’ll happily replace it.

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By Iona Ralph

Freezer

Chilli	Keep whole chillies in the freezer. They are great grated into dishes or take them out the freezer for five minutes and slice as usual
Ginger	The easiest and least wasteful way to peel ginger is to scrape off the skin with a teaspoon. Then freeze the peeled ginger whole. You can grate from frozen into dishes or thaw for five minutes and then slice as usual.
Fresh Herbs (freezer)	Put bags of fresh herbs straight into the freezer then crumble into your cooking from frozen. It is not advised to do this for herbs you’ll use as a garnish as they don’t hold their leaf structure. Use within a month or they’ll lose flavour. You can also put chopped herbs in an ice-cube tray with some water, melted butter or stock. Once you are ready to use the herbs just toss a cube into your casserole, soup, or anything else you might be cooking.
Bread (ends and offcuts)	Tear up and freeze the ends of loaves of bread in a bag, then when you’ve collected enough you can whizz them up in the food processor (from frozen, no need to defrost) to make breadcrumbs. The easiest way to do this is to push them through the grater attachment, but you can whizz them with the blades too.
Cake	You can portion up cake, whipped-cream filling and all, and wrap in tinfoil and freeze. It defrosts very well.
Hard cheese (leftovers)	All leftover hard cheese can be frozen, in separate bags: cheddar, parmesan and try a mixed bag of other cheeses, crumbled, grated, or chopped small. Using some of your mixed bag in things like a white sauce is wonderful – every sauce is different, and so much more flavourful.
Fruit and berries	Brown bananas can be broken up and frozen – amazing in smoothies. Other fruit like apples, berries and pears can be quickly stewed on the hob, cooled and frozen in pots for easy and healthy puddings like crumbles, mixed through yoghurt or dolloped onto porridge.
Tomatoes (past their prime)	Arrange tomatoes in a zip-top bag so they can lay flat in the freezer. Remove as much excess air as you can, seal it up, then store in the freezer for two to three months. It is as simple as that! They will technically be safe to eat after the three-month mark, but some flavour and texture will be lost.
Celery	Celery will lose its crunch in the freezer, but not its flavour. Thinly slice it or dice it and add it to soups and casseroles.
Avocado	You can freeze avocado by blitzing it up into a puree and freezing that way. It’s a great base for an avocado dressing.
Mushrooms	Sauté your mushrooms and then freeze them and they will be ready to add directly to dishes on a busy night.
Onions	Onions can be diced and frozen flat in the freezer bags. Once you are ready to use them, just break off a section and you are all set.
Peppers	Dice or cut them into long strips for fajitas and stir-fries and then freeze the peppers for future use.
Spinach	Rinse and then blanch, then put into freezer bags and freeze for up to nine months.
Broccoli	Broccoli freezes well. Wash thoroughly, blanch for about four minutes then freeze in zip-lock bags.
Milk	Milk freezes very well for up to six months. You can also freeze butter, cream cheese, and yogurt.
Double cream	If your double cream is nearing the end of its fridge life, it can be whipped, put into a container and frozen for later.

Pantry / out of the fridge

Tomatoes (unripe)	Store unripe tomatoes at room temperature in a paper bag. This traps ethylene, a hormone that fruits naturally produce, and encourages ripening.
Bread (stale loaf)	Splash some water over a slightly stale loaf and bake in the oven for 10 minutes on a high heat. Keeping bread in the fridge dries it out and can change the texture.
Eggs	Eggs don’t need to be kept in the fridge. If you are unsure if your eggs are past their prime, then put them through the water-floating test. Get a big container of water and gently drop the eggs in. if they sink then they are still good, but if they float they shouldn’t be eaten.
Potatoes	Should be stored in a cool, dry and dark space so that they don’t sprout, go mouldy or turn green.
Citrus fruits	Keep out of the fridge: citric acid is damaged by cold temperatures. Cold temperatures also block the ripening process which can make them taste strange, and can discolour peel.
Onions	Onions are best stored as far away from potatoes as possible. The potatoes release gasses and moisture that will cause the onions to rot. Keep them out of the fridge though – the cold can make them soggy, and no one likes a soggy onion. Onions are best stored in a paper bag (not plastic) in a cool (but not cold) place.
Cucumber	Cucumber is not actually a vegetable, and in fact belongs in the fruit bowl. This is because they may be impacted by the cold temperatures of the fridge, which can cause them to go soggy and lose their crunchy texture, meaning they go bad more quickly.

Fridge

Fresh Herbs (fridge)	Cut a small bit of the stem off, put in a jar with some water in the bottom (like a bouquet of flowers), and keep in the fridge uncovered.
Mustard and horseradish	There are no ingredients in mustard that will spoil, but Dijon and horseradish mustards will lose their distinct flavours if not refrigerated.
Mushroom	Mushrooms sweat when they are in a plastic bag so pop them in a paper bag in the fridge to help them last longer
Cheese	Wrap cheese in greaseproof paper and then pop it in an airtight box. This will help it last longer and prevent your whole fridge smelling like cheese.
Soft fruit	Berries should be kept in the fridge to maximise their lifespan.
Avocado	Storing your avocados in the refrigerator will keep them from ripening, which can be quite useful. Leave them on the counter until ripe, and if you don't eat them right away, place them in the refrigerator to keep them from over-ripening.