Bags of fresh salad rarely stay fresh for very long (Image: Getty)
When you need a healthy yet filling way to bulk out a meal, you can’t go wrong with a bag of salad from the supermarket. Whether that’s spinach, lettuce, rocket or a mix, these bags are very affordable and go with so many different dishes.
However, if you’re not using the entire bag at once, they rarely stay fresh for very long. It’s often just one day or two before the fresh green leaves go soggy and slimy, meaning you need to throw away what’s left. However, there’s an easy way to keep your salad fresh and green for longer – and you only need one simple kitchen item.
Why is food waste so harmful?
In a bid to help UK households cut down on food waste, the experts at Which? have shared some simple hacks to keep things fresh. It comes as the latest data from the climate action charity Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) estimates that we end up binning around 4.4 million tonnes of edible food annually, costing the average household of four people around £1,000 per year.
Food waste also harms the planet, with greenhouse gases from rotting food annually estimated to be equivalent to those generated by one in five cars on UK roads.
Lettuce is notorious for rotting as soon as you’ve opened the bag (Image: Getty)
How to keep bags of salad fresh
If you want to cut down on food waste and keep your bagged salad fresher for longer, all you need is a piece of kitchen roll. According to the Which? experts, this simple item is amazing for reducing the risk of your salad going soggy or slimy.
They said: “Bagged spinach and salad leaves are convenient, but they can have a relatively short shelf life, particularly once the packaging has been opened.”
However, by adding a sheet of kitchen roll to the bag once it’s opened and sealing it with a clip, this will helps to absorb excess moisture – which is one of the main reasons why salad goes soggy.
This tip isn’t just popular amongst the Which? experts – it has also come up time and time again on Reddit, with one person posting on the Frugal thread: “Put a sheet of kitchen roll in your bag of salad, and it will keep from going off for a good few days after the date.”
In the comments, one person said: “I love this! It’s helped me actually finish my greens before they start going soggy.”
Proving how well it worked, another wrote: “Baby spinach has been in my fridge with this and lasted two weeks over the use by date so far..”
It’s also worth inspecting your bag of salad as soon as you buy it. Taking any leaves out which have already went slimy will help to prevent the others from doing the same.
And, if you don’t want to keep it in the plastic bag, you can remove the salad, dry them completely and transfer them to an airtight container lined with kitchen roll, which should keep it crunchy and fresh.
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