Every food has a certain quality. Here are ways to keep each type fresh for a longer period of time so that you can avoid stepping out often
The COVID-19 pandemic has got the country sheltering at home during the lockdown. While it was assured that the supply of essentials will continue as before, however, the apprehension resulted in panic buying, hoarding and stocking. Several stores ran out of a number of food items and the prices of vegetables and fruits spiralled.
Now that you’re overstocked, one should get smarter about what they have. We must learn the art of storing food with an extended shelf life and minimise food waste.
“Different food types come with different shelf life. While some have the capacity to stay fresh for longer, others may not,” states Luve Oberoi, marketing manager, Asahi Kasei Pvt Ltd, listing below a few ways which can help you keep your food fresh for an extended period of time:
vUse of premium wraps
Premium (plastic) wraps are considered extremely helpful when it comes to preserving food. These are made of different materials and hence, can be found in the variety of PVDC cling film, PVC or PE cling film. These were introduced in the mid-20th century and owing to their capability to preserve food, gained popularity.
However, if one has to choose the best, PVDC cling. is considered the best. These plastic wraps help in keeping the food fresh for a longer time by avoiding moisture and smells from seeping through. It is considered ideal for storing raw vegetables, fruits, poultry, seafood, roti dough without any fear of discoloration or oxidisation and thus eliminates any wastage of food.
Store your fruits and vegetables separately
Every food type has its own properties. It is advised that we must not store our fruit and vegetables together as a number of fruits expel a gas called ethylene glycol as they hit maturity. This gas speeds up the ripening of the fruit leading to premature ripening of vegetables stored with them. Consequently, this can damage the fruit as well as vegetables.
Also, some fruit, on the absorption of odours from vegetables, become unpalatable. Hence, fruits and vegetables must not be put together.
Get creative and experiment with your food
What better time than this lockdown to nurture your cooking skills and bring out the inner chef. Most of us are taking cooking classes on YouTube and experimenting with new dishes which is causing some amount of food wastage too.
However, in times like this, we need to get creative and experiment with leftover food. There are so many things which could be produced out of it. For example, rice. It can be used in multiple ways. If you had cooked plain white rice in the afternoon for lunch and have some extra, you can add spices, onions and different flavours to it for dinner and have an entirely new dish.
Lable the expiry dates of pantry items
We often have food items at home but we are unaware of their expiry dates. We must be aware of what we have and its shelf life. This will help in consciously using items and avoiding wastage of those food items.
Use fridge freezer shelves for different foods
Your fridge’s freezer shelves are very helpful when it comes to storing food items like ready to eat products such as dairy, cooked meats, raw meat, poultry and fish, salad, fruit and vegetables. However, since they have different properties, they are stored in different shelves of the fridge.
Raw meat, fish and seafood should be kept at a certain temperature in order to lock in freshness and prevent harmful bacteria from tucking in. They should be kept on the bottom shelf or, if your fridge has one, a chill compartment that’s specially designed for this purpose.
Butter and cheese are less perishable, so they’re best kept near the top of your fridge where it’s warmer.