All year long, I've been working hard to save you money at the grocery store. One way to save money is to make sure your food doesn't go to waste. So I went searching for answers to see how we can keep our produce fresh longer!
Watch Kiara's report in the video player below
When you walk into a grocery store, typically, produce is either neatly packaged in plastic, or ready for you to toss in a plastic bag and go.
It's all about convenience, said Dr. Linda Johnson, who is known by many as the Queen of Holiday Market.
The queen has been gracing the aisles of Holiday Market in Royal Oak for 46 years, and possibly making the same mistake for just as long. I asked her how she usually stores her mushrooms.
"I keep them in the package in the refrigerator and once I open it, I try to put Saran Wrap around it a little bit so that they stay fresh," she told me.
Chef Ryan Louwart is the Campus Executive Chef at Oakland University, and he shared tips and tricks to keep produce fresh for days and even weeks longer.
I asked him how to properly store berries.
“One of the things we don’t want to do is wash our berries and grapes until they are ready to be consumed instead," Chef Ryan said. He recommended shoppers to lay a paper towel at the bottom of an airtight container, place your unwashed berries into the container while throwing out any that already look spoiled. Then, he said you should seal them, and wash only the amount you are ready to eat."
“You’ll probably get an extra 2-3 days out of all your berries and grapes," he told me.
For storing herbs, Chef Ryan told me to wrap the unwashed items in a damp paper towel, then place them in a ZipLoc bag.
“And that would go in your refrigerator. You can put this in your crisper drawer," Chef Ryan said.
"How much longer of a shelf life are you getting by doing this?" I asked.
"Oh, I would say probably 3-4 days," he replied.
And the same method works for bagged lettuce, except the paper towel should be dry.
“So let’s say you buy a fruit like an avocado or mango that is not ripe yet," Chef Ryan explained. "Leave it out on your counter. If you’re not ready to use it when it’s ripe. That’s when you put it in the refrigerator. keeping it ripe and fresh for longer.
And you remember those mushrooms the Queen of Holiday Market typically buys?
“These are pretty much like sponges," he told me.
So if you leave them wrapped, all the trapped moisture will leave them slimy. Instead, throw them in a paper bag.
"It's a great tip for avocado as well," Chef Ryan said.
