Sorting out storage: fact from fiction
So often our food goes bad because we don’t store it in the right place.
Bread goes mouldy, potatoes sprout and vegetables go limp. There is so much conflicting advice on where you should store things, it’s hard to know what really is the best way.
This year Love Food Hate Waste is finding out the secrets to correct storage so we can share them with you. We’re working with the University of Otago to put different storage methods to the test.
In December we asked you to complete a survey to tell us how your store your food, so we would know the most common ways Kiwis store certain foods.
These are some of the things we found out:
- We all have different ideas on how to make our avocados last. Our survey found that you use over 15 different methods to store cut avocados, but are some more effective than others?
- When storing cut pumpkins, roughly half of us scoop out the seeds, while others leave them in. Is it worthwhile doing this? We are going to test and find out.
- While they like the same storage conditions, potatoes and onions shouldn’t be stored next to each other. But turns out many of us don’t know this, with 45% of people saying they store them together.
- Lettuce is another problem area, with 86% of respondents admitting they have thrown it out because it has gone slimy or discoloured. So is there a trick to storing lettuce that really will make a difference?
- Bread is the most wasted food in New Zealand (we waste 20 million loaves of bread every year!) Turns out we are more likely to throw bread out because it has gone mouldy rather than because it is stale. So should we be storing that bread in the fridge?
Thanks for sharing your kitchen tricks with us. All of this information has helped determine what storage methods we need to test. Once our research is complete we’ll share with you the results so you can make your food last longer.
Everyone who completed the survey went into the draw to win a Love Food Hate Waste Ice Cube Tray. Thanks and congratulations to our winners Lynette (Whanganui), Amber (Wellington), Bev (Hamilton), Lyn (Papamoa) and Sandra (Christchurch).
