One of the staple grocery items up the most in price this year—besides coffee and beef—are fresh vegetables.
It even has a name: veggie-flation. Since veggie-flation is raising the price of many fruits and vegetables this year, there are many ways to avoid wasting your money for produce that goes bad quick, including keeping your fresh items to last as long as possible.
All that fresh food in your grocery store’s produce section? Almost half of it gets thrown away, which is a real issue with today’s high prices.
Michael Guintini of Roth Produce stopped selling asparagus after tariffs sent prices on Mexican asparaguses soaring.
“For me to make any money, I’d have to charge over 8 dollars a pound, and I can’t do that!” Guintini exclaimed.
So you want those veggies to last. The blog “Living on the Cheap” says:
Store fruits and vegetables without washing them. Moisture makes them rot faster.Store apples and pears in the refrigerator—but not in sealed bags, where they will become wet.Let tomatoes ripen on the counter, then refrigerate to extend their life.Don’t store onions next to greens or potatoes—that will increase rot and give other things an onion flavor.Store potatoes in a cool dark cupboard, not the refrigerator.
One of the most expensive items we through away is beef. That’s because steak lasts just three to five days in the fridge before going bad.
Chefs suggest you buy beef just one day before you plan to cook it up, not with your weekly grocery trip. Otherwise by the time you fire up that grill, it may be brown and inedible.
Bottom line: don’t leave those fresh items in the cupboard to start rotting after three or four days, so you don’t waste your money.