How to keep fruit and vegetables fresh for longer

A good share of the fruit and vegetables people buy never gets eaten. Most of it is not forgotten; it is stored in the wrong place. A few simple rules decide whether berries last two days or five, and whether a bag of spinach turns to slime before Thursday.

Rule one: some fruit ripens everything around it

Apples, bananas, avocados and tomatoes give off ethylene, a natural gas that speeds up ripening. That is useful when you want it and costly when you do not. Keep them away from leafy greens, broccoli and cucumbers, which yellow and wilt faster in its presence. If you want an avocado to ripen by tomorrow, though, put it in a paper bag with a banana.

On the counter

• Bananas. Keep cavendish bananas at room temperature, ideally hanging or apart from other fruit. Once they are as ripe as you like them, the fridge slows them down: the peel turns dark, the inside stays good for a few more days.
• Avocados. Hass avocados ripen on the counter in two to five days. When one gives slightly to a gentle press, move it to the fridge, where it holds for two or three days.
• Tomatoes. Roma tomatoes taste best kept at room temperature, stem side down, out of direct sun. Refrigerate only fully ripe ones you cannot eat in a day or two, and let them come back to room temperature before eating.
• Citrus. Navel oranges are fine in a fruit bowl for about a week; in the fridge they last several weeks.

In the fridge

• Berries. Keep strawberries dry and unwashed in the fridge, in a single layer on a paper towel if you can, and wash them just before eating. Take out any soft or mouldy berry straight away so it does not spread.
• Leafy greens. Baby spinach lasts longest in its container with a dry paper towel tucked in to catch moisture. Use it within about five days, and cook any leaves that start to soften rather than throwing them away.
• Apples. Honeycrisp apples stay crisp for weeks in the crisper drawer, but on the counter they soften within days. Keep them in their own drawer, away from greens.
• Broccoli and cucumbers. Broccoli crowns keep three to five days loosely wrapped. Mini cucumbers dislike the coldest part of the fridge; the door or the front of a shelf suits them better.
• Grapes. Store seedless red grapes unwashed in the fridge and rinse only what you are about to eat.

Use the crisper drawers properly

Many fridges have two drawers with a humidity slider. Set one to high humidity for vegetables that wilt (greens, broccoli, cucumbers) and one to low humidity for fruit that rots (apples, grapes, berries). Never pack a drawer so full that air cannot move.

When something starts to turn

• Overripe bananas make the best banana bread, or peel and freeze them for smoothies.
• Soft tomatoes go into sauce; wilting spinach goes into eggs or pasta.
• Berries past their best can be frozen on a tray, then bagged for baking and smoothies.

Buy fresh food more often and in smaller amounts, and it gets eaten. Ordering a smaller basket twice a week is often cheaper than one big one, once you count what used to be thrown away.