Keeping food fresh for as long as possible can be a juggling act, especially in the summertime when temperatures rise and produce can spoil faster. This can sometimes lead to health issues like food poisoning, which can bring on a litany of unpleasant symptoms such as feeling or being sick, stomach pains, diarrhoea, a high temperature and more.
As per the Food Standards Agency: “Bacteria that cause food poisoning can multiply faster in higher temperatures. During the warmest times of the year, food can quickly get into the temperature range that encourages bacteria to grow. This can mean foods are riskier to eat if not prepared or stored correctly.”
Many people turn to social media looking for innovative ways to ensure they’re storing their food in the safest possible manner, while also getting it to last longer.
With popular fruits and vegetables, there’s a wide range of lifestyle hacks and tips dished out by novices and experts alike, keen to impart their wisdom and experience.
From covering the ends of bananas in tin foil to keep them fresher for longer, to wrapping leafy greens in paper towels to absorb excess moisture and prevent wilting; there’s plenty of easy to follow advice being viewed online.
One woman created a video to share a retro method on how to keep whole apples fresh and a lot of it comes down to storing them properly – and wrapping them in common household items like newspapers.
On Reddit, the footage was shared with the title: “Tips from the 1700s on how to keep whole apples fresh for many months in your pantry”.
In the clip, the woman – who posts on the YouTube channel The Acadian Garden & Apothecary – shared stats on how long apples are typically supposed to last according to various governing food bodies, but then revealed she had apples that were still fresh after five months – and she didn’t store them in her fridge.
She explained the tips she followed came from a book titled A Reverence for Wood, by the artist and author Eric Sloane.
She discussed the effects of ethylene gas, a plant hormone that triggers ripening, which many fruits and some vegetables produce. At higher concentrations, this gas can accelerate spoilage in nearby fruits.
Apples do produce high levels of ethylene gas which can be triggered in “a number of ways”. When the apple is bruised, it can have a “stress response that will cause it to produce ethylene early”, as well as insect damage which can kick the process off prematurely, too.
To help keep apples at their freshest for longer periods of time, it’s important to check you’re only storing the most “perfect” of apples – ones that have no bruises or blemishes.
If you want them to last for months, it’s advised to “pack them” in a “dry, aerated material” such as newspaper, which is what the woman in the video uses.
She explained: “I individually wrapped each apple in newspaper and carefully put them away into a cool, dark pantry.” The individual wrapping can help prevent the spreading of ethylene gas, leading to the other apples spoiling.
It’s still wise to store apples away from other vegetables and fruits as apples are high producers of ethylene and can cause other products to ripen early.
In the Reddit comments section, people were keen to share their thoughts. One declared: “This is my kind of ASMR”.
Another said: “Thanks for posting this, I’ve just wrapped a whole bunch of apples in newspaper! Excited to see how long they will keep”.
A third shared: “Just came home from the orchard and will be giving this a try with the unbruised, unspotted, stem-attached apples from the bunch we picked. Thanks!!”
And another comment stated: “This works best with fresh orchard apples rather than store-bought, which may have been sprayed with chemicals that affect the ripening process.”