Did you know that fruits and vegetables are the most wasted type of food? It’s not surprising when you think about it.

How many times have you purchased fruits and vegetables with great intentions to cook amazing meals and treats with them, but they end up going bad before you have a chance to use them?

That’s one of the things that inspired me to invent The Swag! No one wants to waste food. We go to the supermarket, see all of this delicious, vibrant produce, and fill our carts. Fast forward a few days (or fewer in some cases), and the vibrant colours are replaced with mould spots.

If you’re like me, then eating and serving your family natural, unprocessed foods is important to you, and you’re frustrated with the amount of expensive fruits and vegetables you have to throw away every week, especially if you buy organic which tends to be more expensive and rot more quickly since it’s not chemically treated. Finding ways to increase the life of fruits and vegetables is another way you can contribute to your family’s health!

In this crazy busy world we live in, it’s nice to know you can come home at the end of a long day and make a healthy meal with fresh fruits and veggies. And for every mom who has ever opened the fridge to fill her child’s lunchbox in the morning only to discover that the fruits and vegetables are spoiled, keeping produce fresher for longer can be a huge stress reliever! When you store your produce correctly, you’ll have a better chance of using all of those fruits and vegetables before they get too ripe or start to rot.

For example, The Swag can give back days or weeks to your produce, which means you’ll waste less food and save money when you use it. You’ll also save time because you won’t have to make as many trips to the store to replace all of that spoiled food!

 

10 Fruit and Vegetable Storage Tips to Keep Your Produce Fresher for Longer

Of course, storing your fruits and vegetables in The Swag is a proven way to extend the life of your produce, but that’s not all you can do. Here are 10 fruit and vegetable storage tips to help your produce stay fresher for longer:

 

1. Never store your fruits and vegetables in plastic bags or plastic containers.
2. Don’t allow too much moisture to touch your produce.
3. Buy fruits and vegetables before they’re ripe.
4. Store ripe fruit away from unripened produce so the ethylene gas released by the ripe fruit doesn’t cause premature ripening in your other fruits and vegetables. You can find a list of ethylene producing fruits on our FAQ page.
5. Store produce in the proper places – the refrigerator or the counter.
6. Toss overripe produce immediately so it doesn’t cause the produce stored near it to ripen too quickly.
7. Before you store it, buy local. The process to get produce to your supermarket is not quick. To get the freshest produce that will last the longest, try to buy from local growers whenever possible.
8. Store produce loosely packed so it can breathe.
9. Avoid storing produce in the door of your refrigerator where temperatures can fluctuate significantly.
10. Keep produce out of direct sunlight.

 

My recommendation is to start with The Swag and see for yourself how much longer your produce lasts. Combine The Swag or reusable vegetable storage bags with the 10 fruit and vegetable storage tips listed above to keep your fruit and vegetables fresher for longer, and you’ll love how much time and money you’ll save when you start making fewer trips to the grocery store and wasting less food!