No one likes wasting fresh produce, but did you know the way you store your fruits and veggies can make all the difference? Here’s how to store these fresh and ripe fruit so they can last longer.  

Apples  

Whether you love a crisp Granny Smith or lean more towards a sweet Honeycrisp, you’ll find apples all year round, but it’s more prominently an in-season autumn fruit. According to Ken Wortz, the head distiller for Sauvage Distillery New York, apples should be stored in a cool, dry place. If you keep them on the counter, they will last about one week. But if you want to store them long-term, keeping them cool in the fridge will be the better, more reliable option. “They can last six to eight weeks stored in a refrigerator,” says Ken. 

Oranges  

Oranges are winter fruit – and just in time to give us that extra vitamin C boost when the cold and flu season is at its peak. They should be stored in a cool, dry place like the fridge, but it is quite picky when it comes to which fruit it can be stored with. Oranges emit a small amount of ethylene gas, so they shouldn’t come into contact with apples and bananas. They can, however, be stored with other citrus fruits.   

Pro tip: Looking to eat an orange that’s been in the fridge? “Like a fine red wine, if you’re keeping your oranges in the fridge, ideally, you would pull them out about an hour before you want to eat them,” says Riley Davies, produce category manager at Misfits Market, an online grocery store. She adds that the flavour will be more intense when the orange has slightly warmed up.

Lemons 

From slicing them into a warm cup of tea to using them in delicious zesty desserts – this citrus fruit is always handy to have at home. But how do it keep them fresh? “You can keep them on the counter but they won’t last as long and will start to dry out,” says Anina von Haeften, co-founder of the food delivery service Farm to People. “On the counter, they will last about a week, and in the fridge, they can last up to a month.” She advises that you pop the whole lemons into a sealed, airtight container first and store them as is to keep them juicy. 

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