3 Ways To Help Food Keep For Longer In Your Fridge

While getting a quality freezer or chiller is part of the battle of keeping your food safe and edible, the rest of the equation has more to do with how you’re storing the food that you put in the fridge. So to help ensure that the food you’re spending your money on will last as long as you need it to without going bad or spoiling, here are three ways to help food keep longer in your fridge.

Reduce Moisture

For many foods, moisture is one of the biggest threats to helping them maintain their integrity and stay viable. Knowing this, you should do everything in your power to reduce the overall moisture in your fridge, especially around certain foods.

With leafy greens and salads, keeping a paper towel inside of the container is a great way to soak up any excess moisture that might otherwise cause the vegetables to wilt and become soggy. Also, when storing produce in the fridge, make sure you don’t wash it off until you’re actually ready to eat it. Having the extra moisture from rinsing produce, especially berries, can result in the berries developing mold and sogginess before they ordinarily would have on their own.

Keep Dairy Where The Temperature Is Most Consistent

The way in which you place foods into your fridge can also make a big difference in how long that food will stay fresh.

One type of food that is most affected by changing temperatures in the fridge is dairy. With dairy products, you want to keep them in a part of the fridge that won’t have a lot of fluctuation in the temperature. So while you might be used to putting your milk or cream in the door of the fridge, this part is actually the worst place to keep these dairy products. Rather, you should place dairy products in the back of the fridge where it won’t be impacted as much by the door opening and closing multiple times a day.

Be Careful With Temperatures

The overall temperature that you set your fridge at can also have a big impact on how long food will stay fresh in there.

Ideally, you should keep your fridge’s temperature at lower than 40 degrees Fahrenheit. But to help you maintain this temperature, you’re not going to want to put anything too hot into the fridge, as it can heat up the entire space and cause the food near it to become unsafe. So before you put away leftovers, make sure you’ve allowed them to cool to close to room temperature.

If you’ve been having issues with the food in your fridge going bad sooner than you think it should, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you make some healthy changes.