Love Fresh Berries showcase their blueberries in promo film
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Berries can be very expensive to buy, and they have a very limited shelf life. Here are a couple of ways to prolong the fruits, and reduce the chance of them going mouldy in the fridge.
Berries come in many forms but strawberries, blueberries and raspberries are the most common and highly bought from a supermarket, usually in a plastic tub with small holes in.
Most households take them straight out of their shopping bags and place them into the fridge, but if you store them correctly, berries can last longer than a couple of days.
This Morning’s consumer expert, Alice Beer explained: “Berries are very porous, very delicate and thinly skinned.”
As a result, they can decay quickly, either forming blue-grey mould or getting squished.
“The answer to this problem is put your berries in a bowl with a cup full of vinegar and two cups full of water,” she explained.
Alice had conducted a mini experiment where she had purchased two packs of berries, five days ago.
One pack had been “doused in vinegar” and the other hadn’t to see which pack lasted the longest.
“You put the berries in vinegar for 10 minutes and rinse them, dry them and put them in a container with a paper towel.”
When comparing the two, Alice said “the [vinegar-doused] strawberries definitely look fresher”.
“These [the ones without the vinegar] are mush,” she added.
“I would say there are two things at play here, one is the vinegar which is killing the mould on the surface. So that’s a good thing. The berries also don’t taste of vinegar, because they’ve been rinsed afterwards.
“I think the biggest thing here is putting them in storage with paper towels – paper towels are your God, they’re absorbing the moisture.
“If you are to layer your raspberries and soft berries on plates in amongst paper towels in the fridge, they would last a lot longer,” Alice said.
Returning berries to their original packaging after cleaning and sorting are fine, but they’ll stay fresher for longer if moved to a shallow container where they can be spread into a single layer, instead of stacked.
You will just need to cover them loosely with a clean cloth or paper towel.
If stored this way, berries can last up to 10 days before decaying.
Where you store your berries in the fridge can also play a huge part in how long they last.
Avoid choosing the coldest corner zones of the fridge where they are at risk of getting frostbite.
Instead, store them front and centre where the temperature is less frigid.
This also helps you to remind yourself to eat them, as they’re one of the first things you see when opening the fridge.
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