Keeping Fruit Fresh Longer

Have you ever wondered about how you can go about keeping fruit fresh longer? Chances are you have found how frustrating it can be to get some new fruit, only to have it go bad a couple days later. Instead of constantly buying new fruit every two or three days, why not learn the tricks to keeping fruit fresh longer? It's not all that difficult to learn, and by keeping the fruit fresh as long as possible you are not only keeping your expenses down, you are helping to promote a healthier atmosphere around your home.

1. Examine your fruit. The very first thing that you need to do when attempting to keep your fruit fresh as long as possible is to examine your fruit as closely as possible prior to purchasing. Look at the fruit and see if you can find the freshest fruit possible. Avoid any and all fruit that have any bruises, micro mold spots, or even a soft spot on the fruit. These small problem areas can lead to a quick deterioration rate if you are not careful.
2. Know your fridge. You also need to know where the best place for the fruit in your fridge will be. Most berry types of fruit should be kept in the bottom most drawers of your refrigerator since it is the one that is the least opened in the refrigerator and it also has the ability to control the humidity. However, if you are looking to store bananas, pears, peaches, oranges, or other similar types of fruit should not be stored in the fridge, and should in fact be kept at room temperature out of direct sunlight.
3. Space is a good thing. Unless you are trying to prematurely age your fruit, do not keep it in a paper bag, or similarly enclosed space. The reason for this is rather simple in that the enclosed spaces will hold onto the gases that escape from a fruit as it ages. If these gases are trapped in the same location as the fruit itself, it will quickly help to age the fruit to the point where it spoils.
4. Keep an eye out. Closely monitor your fruit for problem signs like soft spots, mold, or something similar. When one piece of fruit starts to go bad, if it is in close or direct contact with the rest of the fruit it will make them go bad even quicker. In essence acting in much the same manner as the enclosed space or bag described earlier.
5. Know your fruit. Not all fruit has the same storage requirements, and you need to know what they are. For example, as it was stated earlier fruit like berries will require that they be refrigerated, though larger fruit don't need to be refrigerated generally don't require refrigeration until the last minute. Some examples of these larger fruit would be things like bananas, peaches, pears, and watermelons.