Keep fresh: how to store vegetables

Ever opened the fridge to discover wrinkled carrots, limp celery and unrecognisable slime in a bag? Fresh fruit and vegetables are not cheap and wastage is not easy on the household budget.

One tip is to store your fruit and vegetables separately. Some fruits such as bananas can prematurely ripen vegetables (conversely, they're also good for speeding up the ripening process of that rock-hard avocado). And knowing which temperature is ideal for each item will help keep them fresher for longer.

Here's a guide to some commonly consumed items.

Lettuce and leaves

According to Abe Worthington of online greengrocer The Vege Trail, it's the variation in temperature that ruins greens quickly. "If you have it cold and you bring it to room temperature, that's fine – but if you then try to refrigerate it again it ruins the fibres in it."

Wash only as you need it.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes continue to ripen and sweeten if left at room temperature, or in a cool place (not cold). If you store them in the fridge the flesh goes chalky.

Broccoli

As the owner of 2014 Greengrocer of the Year Southgate Sylvania Best Fresh, Mark Amerio knows how to keep his produce at its best.

"A fridge is designed to keep dairy and meat fresh so it is too cold for most fruit and vegetables, broccoli included. Wrap it in a plastic bag and keep it in the crisper. Dousing with water will keep it crisp short term, but long term it will rot. It doesn't need it," he says.

Celery

Celery goes limp quickly, but trimmed and cut into lengths you can store it in the fridge with a damp piece of kitchen roll in a plastic container for up to three weeks.

Potatoes

Washed potatoes can live in the fridge, but brushed and Sebagos like a cool, dark area. Do not leave in plastic. If they sprout, then conditions are too warm.

Cucumbers

Cucumbers are sensitive to cold and after one to three days they will get soggy patches if kept in the main area of the fridge due to their high water content. "They are good in a cool area outside the fridge, but ideally it would be about 10 degrees - not on the hot counter. In summer the crisper is good," Amerio says.

Carrots

The owner of Kalfresh Carrot Farm, Robert Hinrichson, recommends your carrots live in a plastic bag in the crisper. "To give carrots 'eye appeal' the industry brushes off the dead epidermal layer which actually protects it. Once removed carrots need to be kept out of air flow, and in the fridge."

Mushrooms

"Store in a paper bag in the crisper," says Kim Margin, of Margin's Mushrooms on NSW's central coast. "My personal opinion is you don't want them in any plastic ever as they can sweat and then bad things happen to them."

If they get really dry in the paper, you can reconstitute them in soups and stews and their flavour will be concentrated.