Which bags keep produce freshest?

by Nicole Weston, Posted Sep 9th 2006 @ 9:01AM

The Wall Street Journal (subscription) decided to put several food storage bags to the test to see if their claims that they would keep foods fresher, longer, really were true. They went out and bought fresh strawberries, a fruit notorious for spoiling quickly, and placed them in three different containers: Freshvac Pro containers, SimplySmart PrimeProtector Produce Bags and Ziploc Double Zipper bags.

As a control, some berries were left in their original container. Those molded quickly. The rest of the berries were checked at six and fourteen days in their respective containers. The Freshvac berries started to mold on day six, but the SimplySmart berries were still fresh and tasty at that time. Ziploc'd berries were kept mold-free for the entire 14 days, although the berries had shriveled "unappetizingly" by the end.

So, Ziplocs ($2.79 for 20 bags) are the way to go for short-term storage unless you want to pay 5 times as much for SimplySmart ($4.99 for 10 bags), but the best thing to do is try to eat the berries or other veggies soon after you buy them and not to buy more than you can eat.

Filed Under: Newspapers, Stores & Shopping, Food Gadgets, Did you know?, Ingredients
Tags: berries, did you know, fresh, freshvac, fruit, fruits, Gadgets, produce, simplysmart, storage, store, stores-and-shopping, vegetables, wall street journal, WallStreetJournal, ziploc

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-09-2006 @10:03AM Peter said... Doesn't it depend on the food? I thought some foods were supposed to be kept tightly sealed and some were supposed to be loosely wrapped or left open to the air.
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9-09-2006 @10:23AM Ben Mishkin said...
Instead of a plastic bag, try putting them straight in the produce bin in your refrigerator, with an ExtraLife produce saver. Works for me, 2x-3x the normal life for fruits and veg.

http://www.dennisgreenltd.com/ExtraLife.asp
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9-09-2006 @3:50PM Bob3 said... I've been working with produce for years and have found that it is the interaction between fresh produce and the plastic container which triggers problems. The same is true for Rubbermaid, ZipLoc bags and all other plastics.

My fiancee taught me to use a quality plastic storage container (such as Rubbermaid), line it with plain (not printed because of the inks!) paper towels and then put the fruit and veggies in the container.

"Spring Mix" which has a short life, will keep four to six days longer than the last sale date if bought early and transferred and stored this way. With Spring Mix, we line the container with paper towels, put in some spring mix, add a folded paper towel, then more spring mix and make sure that the spring mix does not touch the plastic. The paper towels, while keeping the food away from the plastic, serve to absorb some of the excess moisture.
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11-29-2006 @10:15PM Cindy Scinto said... I am not sure what "purely promotional" means but I really wanted to share my Website here because the veggie bags I came up with work so well! People's comments are there to read and you can see they really work. They are easy to make if you wanted to. But I find most people don't want to make them! 8^) I just discovered carrots I had in one I have in my crisper draw from 7 weeks ago and they are bright and crispy still! Cindy
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