Do you know the best way to store popular foods? Learn proper food storage and you can not only make your food last longer, but you can make your wallet happier too!
Learning how to store your food properly has a lot of benefits. When you store your food in the proper way, it lasts longer, holds on to it’s nutritional value, and ends up saving you money!
Food waste is a huge problem… According to Wikipedia, food loss to food waste is between 1/2 and 1/3 of all food produced. That’s a crazy amount! I’ve made a personal goal to really buckle down and lower the food waste in my own home.
Tips for Proper Food Storage:
- Meats: This is an easy one. Buying larger packages of meat is much cheaper and you can portion it out and freeze it for later. When you are ready to use some you can thaw it out, or throw it right it the oven of crock pot! If you aren’t freezing your meat, store it in the store packaging, on the bottom shelves to prevent spills.
- Romaine Lettuce: My favorite way to store romaine lettuce is in a mason jar. Some people use a vacuum-pack machine to seal their jars but I don’t. I don’t find that I need to, I just close the jars tightly. Even without the seal the lettuce will last 1+ weeks longer. You can even pre-make salads in the mason jars, just don’t add it the dressing! Make sure to chop, wash, and dry veggies well if storing in mason jars!
- Strawberries: rinse berries in a mixture of 1 part vinegar and 10 parts water. Drain them, and then rinse off the vinegar. You can do the same the for other berries too! This will prevent mold and make your berries last longer.
- If there is a spoiled or moldy item in the bunch, remove it right away to prevent ruining the rest. (Strawberries, onions, etc.)
- Wrap up bananas when you bring them home. Wrapping up just the crown will keep your bananas fresh for 3-5 days longer!
- Keep your fridge clean and organized. Once something has gone bad in your fridge, the mold lingers until you clean it. Check out this handy chart on how to organize your fridge.
- Buy ethylene gas absorbers, they are inexpensive and will absorb gasses, keeping your fruits and veggies fresher for longer!
What’s your best food-storage tip?
These are great tips, thank you!
Love these tips. I also love the part where you said to keep the fridge clean. I believe if we keep our fridge clean it saves us money. If its clean, we eat at home more often. Treat your kitchen like a restaurant.
I’m curious. Do you chop your lettuce before you pack it in a Mason jar?
These are great tips. I didn’t know about wrapping up your bananas.