Kitchen Guide-Food Storage Part 1

by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger

11 Aug 2006 12:10 PM

How much money do you spend on groceries per week? One hundred dollars? Two hundred? You can blow a major chunk of your household budget on food. I do, that's why I cringe each time I have to throw out food that spoils before anyone gets the chance to eat it. My frustration with tossing out rotten produce forced me to seek advice on how to prolong the life of groceries. I researched the best places to store food and found some interesting information. Most food stays fresher, tastes better, and delivers more health benefits if stowed in its proper place.

Fruit----Fridge vs. Counter

Research shows that most produce sold at grocery stores is not fully mature when you bring it home. Fruits, such as, peaches, plums, pears, honeydews, cantaloupes, mangoes, bananas continue to ripen whether they're on the tree, in the store, or sitting on your kitchen counter. If you want these fruits ripen faster, keep them on the counter for two to five days. Once they start turning soft - or you've sliced them - move them to the fridge; the cold temperatures delay decay. Conversely, citrus fruits, pineapples, raspberries, strawberries, grapes, watermelon, and cherries don't get any riper once they've been picked - they just go bad. To slow the spoiling process, store them in the refrigerator immediately.

Bread

Just about every type of bread (wheat, white, rye, pumpernickel, etc.) will stay fresh for up to four days at room temperature if it is sealed in its original wrapping. Whereas bread can be kept in the freezer for up to three months, try to resist storing it in the refrigerator where it will dry out and go stale faster.

Coffee

I was always taught to keep coffee in the fridge or freezer, but I recently read an article that said doing so exposes it to fluctuating temps and therefore condensation. Food experts say: "It's like your coffee is brewed a little each time it's exposed to water, and that diminishes the flavor." The best place to store coffee is in an airtight canister in a cabinet.

Flour

Once you take your coffee out of the refrigerator you'll have room to put in your flour. Experts say the fridge is the perfect place for it. Place your flour in an airtight container and place it in the refrigerator. The cool temperature helps keep white flour fresh for two years; whole-wheat flour will last about six months. However, if you bake a lot and tend to go through your white flour in less than a year, you can safely keep it on the counter in an airtight container. This advice does not apply to wheat flour. Food experts say to store wheat flour in the fridge no matter how fast you use it. The oils it contains make it more susceptible to spoilage.

Additional Tips:

Don't store any food on top of the refrigerator. It's too warm up there. The heat will wreak havoc on almost any food. Heat also has a detrimental affect on bottled oils. In a shady environment, an opened bottle of oil will stay fresh and antioxidant rich for up to a year. But leave it on a sunny windowsill, and the healthy fats turn rancid in half that time.

Learn more about Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism.

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Jaime Egan (2178) 13 Aug 2006 07:08 AM

I had no idea about some of those. I had a roommate who kept bread in the fridge so that it would stay fresh longer. You learn something new everyday.