Wilted palak and wrinkled cucumber can sure be a turn-off! After all, when you bought your new refrigerator, it guaranteed a week-long freshness! So, what can you do to preserve fruits and vegetables for longer? Which is the right place to store vegetables and fruits in a refrigerator? Let us explore.
Maintaining The Right Levels of Humidity
According to experts, consistent temperature and optimal level of humidity are the key aspects that decide the lifespan of fresh produces. Ideally, temperature variation should be minimal and this is met with most new refrigerators having inverter compressor technology. Refrigerators with dual evaporators have an edge in maintaining an optimal level of humidity in fridges. But, even if your refrigerator doesn’t have dual evaporators, you can maintain the right level of humidity using the right storage containers and keeping fresh produces in the right compartments.
Ideally, fruits should be preserved in low humidity and vegetables, especially leafy vegetables need a higher level of moisture to stay fresh for longer.
Crisper For Fruits and Vegetables
If your refrigerator has two crisper boxes, one would be for fruits and the other for vegetables. They are usually labelled clearly. The box for fruits usually has an opening to facilitate airflow into the box. This way, it helps remove ethylene gas emitted by ripe fruits from the crisper box. So, fruits don’t ripen quickly.
Vegetables, especially leaves wilt quickly when it loses moisture. Hence, it needs to be stored in an enclosed environment where moisture is preserved.
If your refrigerator has a single crispers, then it may have an adjustable vent which can be opened or closed to adjust the humidity level as per your needs. If you are storing fruits and vegetables that require low humidity, you can keep the vent open. Else, you can close it to make an ideal environment for leafy vegetables.
Use Airtight Containers and Ziploc Bags
Airtight containers not only prevent oxidation, but also reduces incidents of odour mixing. Ideally, store fresh produces like chillies, curry leaves, corriander leaves, mint etc in airtight containers in refrigerators. Glass containers are ideal. But we Indians, being Indians sure reuse ice cream boxes for storing them 🙂
Here are some useful tips to store fresh produces in refrigerator.
- When storing chillies, remove the stem and keep a paper towel at the bottom of the container to absorb excess moisture.
- Remove curry leaves twigs from the stem and store them.
- Wrap coriander leaves, cucumber and other vegetables with high water content in moist paper towels or cotton cloth and store them in airtight containers.
- Avoid storing fruits and vegetables in polythene bags. Excessive moisture gets trapped in it and as a result, vegetables get moldy in no time.
- Avoid storing fruits and vegetables together as ethylene gas from fruits will ripen the fruits quickly.
- Check the refrigerator before weekly shopping so that you don’t buy in excess. Also, remove any spoilt item so that other items stored along too doesn’t go bad.
- To store carrot for a long time, keep it in an airtight container/bag in refrigerator.
- Avoid keeping vegetables bought from open market directly in refrigerator. Being in sun, vegetables in open market may be warm. So, keep it in the kitchen and let it cool down a bit. Then, keep them in paper bags or airtight bags depending on the produces and then refrigerate.