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You know those weeks: where you buy the same amount of produce you always do, but by the time it starts to go bad, you've somehow only eaten half of it, or sometimes even less!
Well, you can (mostly) kiss those days goodbye. Because these produce-saving containers will actually keep your whole, un-chopped produce as fresh as the day you bought it at the grocery store — for almost two entire weeks.
Of course, before I really believed any of it, I had to put these containers to the test.
On March 5, 2018, I put half of my fresh strawberries in the medium-sized container and left the other half in the clamshell container they came in from the store. And here they are 10 days later, on March 15!!! (Keep reading to the end to learn how I've kept using them on a weekly-ish basis for six years — it's now June 2024 — with great success!)
I did the same thing with a box of organic baby spinach, which I stored in the large size — and 10 days in, most of the spinach in the produce saver was mostly still crisp, with just a few softer leaves. And the leaves left in the original box were...well, flaccid.
Needless to say, I love these things! But I'm not the only one — on their biggest Amazon listing, they have 4.5 stars with more than 2,900 five-star ratings!
And while I tested just two, the FreshWorks produce savers come in six different shapes and sizes to fit whatever fruit and veg you buy most often.
UPDATE 6/28/2024: I first reviewed these back in 2018, and I just want to say, I use the same exact two containers I bought at the time basically *every single week*, and they STILL work just as well as they did back then! Strawberries, blueberries, basil, spinach, asparagus, mint, peaches and nectarines, tarragon, bell peppers, lettuce, cherries, zucchini...even sliced bread all stay fresher longer. I can't even begin to tally up how much food waste I've prevented by using these!
Update continued: In the six years of using these Rubbermaid FreshWorks Produce Saver containers, I have discovered two main keys to success for storing fruit and vegetables.
1) It doesn't matter if you've washed your produce or not, but it DOES matter that it's still whole and hasn't been sliced or chopped at all. Once you do that, might as well just store it in regular reusable containers or bags. Like, you could store it in these and that's fine, but in my experience they're not going to help them stay fresher for longer.
The only exception to this guideline? Lettuces, kales, and spinach. Those will still last longer even if you've already torn 'em up into bite-size salad pieces.
2) If any of the fruit or veg you want to store has even a hint of mold on it, don't put those pieces in. You *can* still put the non-moldy pieces in, though! If you've been reading, you know I learned that lesson the first time I used these, and more experience has just confirmed that further.
I'm not positive about the science behind this, but it's as if the airtight, moist environment encourages the mold to grow faster than it would if you just left the produce in their store containers while refrigerating them.
TBH at the point that there's some mold on your strawbs, they probably won't last that long anyway. Cut the moldy bits off and enjoy the still-edible parts ASAP!
If you're ready to start wasting less food, saving money, and enjoying the food you buy even if it takes you a while to eat it, get these containers on Amazon! A set of two (one blueberry size and one lettuce size) is $13.59, a set of four (one lettuce size, one bell pepper size, and two blueberry size) is $30.95, or you can get them individually in other sizes for $9.99+.
The only bad news? You'll probably never enjoy a strawberry, no matter how fresh, as much as this baby turtle does:
The reviews in this post have been edited for length and clarity.
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