Fruit Care Guide: Keep your Fruit Fresher for Longer

When you’ve done your weekly shop or ordered a box of mouthwatering fresh fruit, you want to make it last. If only you could take a snapshot of the fruit and vegetables and keep it just like that for a whole week or longer. Alas, many of us return to the fruit bowl a few days later to find they’ve turned brown, or worse, developed spots of furry mould. Want to keep your fruit fresher for longer? We’ve got you covered with our fruit care guide. We’re including tonnes of simple hacks you wish you’d known about sooner!

How do you keep fruit fresh all week?

Below, we’ve included some top tips to help keep your fruit fresh all week.

• It’s best to only chop and peel fruit when you’re ready to eat it. To preserve chopped fruit, you can add a light drizzle of lemon juice. This is particularly effective for avocados and apples.
• Ensure fruit is dry before storing in the fruit bowl or fridge.
• Remove any damaged berries before storing, as this can accelerate the production of mould.
• Make sure you’re storing all your fruit correctly and in the right place. Some fruits can be stored at room temperature, whereas others are more at home in a fridge. For more details on which fruits to place where, see below.
• Remember, you can freeze fruit! If you have an abundance of fruit that you know you’re not going to reasonably eat within the week, it could be worth freezing it to preserve and prevent waste.
• There are also some hard and fast rules on which fruits you can put together in the fruit bowl and which you shouldn’t. We’ve provided a list below.

Which fruits should not be put together?

Not all fruits are meant to be together. You may have heard through the grapevine that you should always keep bananas separate from the rest of your fruit bowl. But you may wonder why. Why do bananas make other fruit ripen more quickly? The answer lies in their chemical composition.

Banana skins naturally release ethylene gas, which speeds up the ripening process of neighbouring fruits and vegetables. It sounds weird, but it’s true. That’s why you should always place your bananas away from the rest of your fruit. You can buy fruit bowls with a hook that suspends the bananas above the bowl, preventing them from coming into contact with other produce.

However, it’s not just bananas that produce the ripening gas. Other fruits do it too!

Here’s a list of other common culprits:

• Peaches
• Pears
• Plums
• Figs
• Apples
• Nectarines
• Apricots
• Cantaloupe melon

To prevent your fruit from turning brown, make sure to store the above-listed fruits separately. For bunches of bananas, we recommend separating and wrapping the stem in plastic wrap, as this can help reduce the spread of ethylene gas.

Should you put fruit in the fridge?

Before placing fruit in the fridge, you should make sure it is ripe.

Some fruits can go straight into the fridge on the day of purchase. Others require time to ripen at room temperature first. This includes: apricots, bananas, cantaloupe melon, kiwi, nectarines, peaches, pears and plums.

It is also possible to freeze certain fruits. In fact, if they’re frozen when ripe, they should retain their nutritional value and flavour really well. Berries in particular are good for freezing, including blackberries, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. Pretty much any fruit can be frozen (apart from bananas). You just need to do more prep work for some varieties. For best results, fruit should be peeled, cored and chopped.

Our top tip?

Try pre-freezing on a tray with the fruit spread apart. Once they’re ready, you can store them in a freezer-safe container. That way, the individual pieces are less likely to stick together, as they will have their very own satisfying ice coating.

Ideal placement and environmental conditions

What you really need to know is the best way to store different fruits to prolong their freshness.

This handy table will show you where to store common fruits.

How long should fruit last?

Even if you take the very best care of your fruit, there will still be a shelf-life. Even when placed in the fridge, most fruit is not able to surpass the week or seven day mark. It’s best to plan ahead and ensure that the amount of fruit you’re buying and picking can reasonably be used within a week.

Don’t forget, slightly riper fruit can still be worked into something utterly delicious, like a berry smoothie or a banana loaf. Plus, with a little help from a freezer, fresh fruit can last up to a year!

In summary

We hope this guide has covered everything you need to know about keeping your fruit fresher for longer. By following the guidelines outlined in this article, you should be able to enjoy your fruit for longer and reduce waste.

Want fresh fruit delivered to your door? Order a fruit box or basket from Zest & Berry today.