Food Saving Tips

[Watchman]

These came from readers of Salt Lake City's Deseret News:

Readers' food-saving tips
Valerie Phillips
DeseretNews.com blogger | Feb. 26, 2009 at 10:59 a.m.

This week's Food section story, "Spoiled Rotten," brought on some guilt for me. When you hate to see food go to waste, it's hard to purposely let $30-$40 worth of good fresh produce languish . I guess families all across America feel that way.

It was interesting to see the GreenBags and other "produce savers" didn't appear to keep food any fresher than regular Tupperware, zip-lock bags an so on.

Since I don't have unlimited money to spend wasting food, I concentrated my research on refrigerated produce. It may be that the GreenBags work better with bananas or apples, which may emit more ripening gases. Since I have a few extra bags left over, I'm going to try it and report back next week.

Here are some of the feedback that readers offered on how they keep their produce fresh:

— "Great way to keep celery indefinitely is to roll it in aluminum foil as soon as you get home from the grocery store, do not wash until used. Seal it tight and it will stay fresh for an extended period of time."

— "I used to work in a well-known fast food restaurant and we prepared the lettuce the night before,chopping it and then storing it in ICE WATER in a big clean trash can (plastic) and we would drain it as we needed it for the salad bar, and it was ALWAYS fresh tasting and nice and crunchy. I still do this in my own home. Try it,you will be surprised."

Editor's note: When you soak cut-up veggies in water, a lot of the nutrients are going to leach out into the water. Iceberg lettuce doesn't have a lot of nutrients to begin with, but this may be more of an issue with romaine and other greens.

— "I keep washed lettuce for weeks in glass or stainless steel containers in the fridge. Plastic is the worst! You'll keep your produce and any other leftovers much longer if you avoid plastics, including baggies."

— "A friend many years showed me how to keep lettuce crisp and green. You clean it, core is, rinse it thoroughly, let it drain to get most water out of it. Take three or four paper towels, wrap the lettuce up and put it in plastic bag. In a couple of days, check to make sure the paper towels are still fairly dry. If not, replace with fresh ones and your lettuce will last 2 or 3 weeks...Celery is cleaned, cut and wrapped in aluminum foil. It keeps a long time. Romaine lettuce is cleaned, drained, wrapped on the outside, not the top and put in plastic bag bottom-end first. It's amazing. I cut up my onions either in slices or chopped, put them in freezer zip lock and keep in the crisper. They last for a long time, and the same with peppers, yellow, green, red, orange. Chop them all up, put a paper towel in zip lock bag first and then the peppers ... They do well."

— "I get frustrated with the stores who spray the veggies with water every 10 minutes. It guarantees that unless you go home and dry off all your veggies, they will rot in a few days. This has got to be part of their plan to sell more, I am sure."

— "I use Romaine lettuce. Keeps over a week. No processing/washing etc. necessary."

— "The bags I use are FREE. They come in dry cereal boxes. When the cereal is gone, shake out any crumbs and use for bananas, apples, green salad fixings or anything you want to keep fresh. DO NOT WASH THE BAGS. Just shake or wipe the crumbs out with a paper towel."

— "Like those advertised on TV, Wal Mart supplies them for produce customers free with purchases and they do keep things longer and fresher than the old style ones. Try them and see for yourselves. Go Wal Mart, A Customer For Life."

Editor's Note: Sorry, but it's going to take more that green produce bags to get me to shop Wal-Mart.

— "I was told from my Pampered Chef friend that cilantro often keeps at its best when you put in on the counter in a jar with some water (like you would flowers). Also, I have had some luck with placing a paper towel in a zip-lock bag with my chopped salad. It seems to gather the moisture and help extend its life a bit. I haven't found any storage idea that keeps chopped salad for several days."

— "I use a product for washing produce that has amazed me. It is a Sunrider product called Sunsmile Fruit and Vegetable Wash. It can be found on the Sunrider Web site. When I get my produce home I usually try to wash it all immediately. A capful per gallon of water washes quite a bit. ... I put it on towels to
drain, then put in zip-lock bags usually with a paper towel to absorb more moisture. With berries, I usually put them in one layer in some plastic ware and fit a top on loosely. I have had amazing results with cilantro lately. It lasts for a week after being washed ... The company claims the product will wash away a variety of problems such as E.coli, salmonella and other organisms. It seems to retard spoilage from mold with strawberries. So the product saves spoilage, rinses away bad elements on the produce, and by washing ahead, it saves time."