How to Store Fresh Fruit So It Lasts Longer

Australians throw away around $3,800 of food per household per year. A decent chunk of that is fruit that went off before anyone ate it. Not because the fruit was bad. Because it was stored wrong.

Here is how to keep everything we sell at Fresh Country Markets in good shape for as long as possible.

Bananas

Separate the bunch as soon as you get home. Bananas ripen faster when attached. Wrap the cut stems in a bit of plastic wrap or foil. This slows down the ethylene gas they release, which is what triggers ripening.

Keep them at room temperature until they are ripe enough for you, then fridge. The skin will turn black in the fridge. The flesh stays good.

Citrus

Oranges, mandarins, lemons, limes. Five days at room temperature on the bench is fine. After that, into the fridge they go, where they will keep two weeks or more.

Do not put citrus in a sealed plastic bag. Moisture gets trapped, mould follows. An open bowl or a mesh bag in the crisper is ideal.

Berries

Berries are fragile and the most common casualty of poor storage. Two rules:

• Do not wash until you eat them. Water on the outside encourages mould.
• Single layer on paper towel in the fridge. Transfer them out of the punnet into a container lined with paper towel. The paper absorbs excess moisture.

Strawberries can last five days with this method. Blueberries a week or more. Raspberries are always a race, but you can stretch them from two days to five.

Avocados

Unripe on the bench, ripe in the fridge. Simple. To speed up ripening, pop them in a paper bag with a banana. To slow it down, fridge immediately.

For cut avocados, squeeze a bit of lemon juice on the flesh, press plastic wrap directly onto the surface, and fridge. You can get another day out of half an avocado this way. After that, oxidation wins.

Apples

Fridge, not the fruit bowl. This is the one most people get wrong. A room-temperature apple loses crispness fast. A refrigerated apple stays crunchy for weeks.

Apples also produce ethylene, so keep them away from sensitive fruit like berries and broccoli.

Stone Fruit

Peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots. Ripen on the counter, fridge once ripe. They are ripe when they give slightly at the stem end and smell like themselves.

Cold storage before they ripen makes them mealy. Wait until they are soft, then cool them.

Pears

Pears are unusual. They ripen from the inside out, so by the time the outside feels soft, the inside is already past prime. Check the neck (near the stem) for a slight give. That is when to eat them.

Buy firm pears and let them sit on the counter until the neck gives. Then refrigerate. This way you control when they are ready.

The ethylene rule

Some fruits give off ethylene gas, which ripens other fruits. Some are sensitive to it. Mix them and you get accelerated ripening of things you did not want ripened.

Ethylene producers: apples, bananas, pears, stone fruit, tomatoes, avocados, mangoes.

Ethylene sensitive: broccoli, lettuce, leafy greens, berries, cucumbers.

Do not store them together. A bowl of apples next to a head of broccoli in the fridge will turn the broccoli yellow within days.

A final trick for soft fruit

If fruit is about to turn and you cannot eat it fast enough, freeze it. Bananas peeled and chopped. Berries on a tray first so they do not clump. Mangoes cubed. All great for smoothies later, and it is a lot cheaper than throwing them out.

Buy fresh, store smart, waste less. If you are starting your fruit shopping at our end, check out what is in season this winter.