Keeping fruit

[Andyvon]

Is there any special way of making fruit last a little longer? My wife and I like fruit and we keep it in two bowls at room temperature in the lounge.

We know the simple answer is to eat it in time. Sometimes however, we buy a little too much and the extra goes off - particularly bananas and pears. Keeping them in the fridge doesn't seem to make much difference. We just wondered whether there was some other method of making them last a day or so longer. Thanks in anticipation.

[BagPussAA]

Dont ever keep bananas in the fridge as they will go off quicker. Dont keep them with other fruit either as the will make it go off. If you hang bananas they will last longer (just get a small banana tree from most retailers). A good idea for pears is buy them before they are ripe and let them ripen at room temperature for a few days and they will be fine to eat.

[Daave]

iif you store your fruit and veg as it is shown in the supermarkets, it should last for the best time,

they only keep certain things in the chillers, and other things at room temp, keep an eye out for what they store in the fridge and not in the fridge...

also, quickly washing hard skinned fruits and veg and thoughly drying them before you store them could help, i do this with tomatoes and apples, and although i dont really know if it keeps them longer, it doesnt seem to do them any harm...

[rarinrob]

Another tip is to keep your fruit away from cut flowers. The flowers produce small amounts of ethylene gas as they age. This gas causes fruit to age faster than normal.

[crisgal]

i do keep my bananas in the fridge, they do go black within a couple of days, but they are still firm inside!
For other fruit, I bought a fruit cushion a few months ago from www.lakelandlimited.co.uk. Put 3528 in the search box.
It really seems to work. I cut it into two, one for my veg drawer and one for my fruit bowl. You can wash it in the machine too.
Good old lakeland.

[Daave]

bananas shouldnt be kept in the fridge..

they will last way way longer if htey are kept at room temp,

supermarkets actually have special banana rooms in their warehouses/distribution fleets, to keep the bananas in the same warehouses as other fruit but not in the big fridge parts...

keep them out of the plastic bag that the dippy store assistants put them in, and keep them on your table somewhere.... and as said above, away from flowers!! (i didnt know that, but ill remember that forever now!)

[rhona_j]

Curiosity got the better of me and I had to check out the fruit cushion from Lakeland, so cool, now I must have one!

[WendyS]

Do you have a cool shed or garage? We regularly buy surplus fruit since markets often do a good deal for bigger quantities, and we store them in string bags in the garage where all types of fruit last longer than in a warm room with the central heating switched on. . Don't store them in plastic bags though, as they need to be exposed to the air. When buying bananas, try to buy some ripe ones and some very green so that they don't all go mushy at the same time. Surplus apples, pears and grapes will keep for a long time in the fridge, lightly wrapped either in plastic bags or brown ones.

[curlyfilm]

bananas don't go off quicker in the fridge, the skin goes black quicke, yes, but the fruit inside ripens more slowly

[Andyvon]

Thank you very much everyone - thats a great help. We thought bananas seemed to go black in the fridge but we didn't know that they are fine inside. We just threw them out. We are now looking for a banana tree and fruit cushion and we are now keeping the bananas seperate from the rest of our fruit. Thanks again!