Food waste harms the planet and our bank account, but it’s easily done.
In fact, the average UK household throws away £800 worth of food each year, which works out to roughly £66 a month.
So no, you’re not the only one finding mouldy veggies tucked at the back of your fridge shelf, but as the cost of living crisis bites, knowing how to make fresh food last longer is essential.
It doesn’t need to take up your time, and you’ll notice a difference in your food bills shortly after committing to a less wasteful way of living.
Not only that, you’ll find that you’re more creative in the kitchen too, making the most of what you have in stock already rather than buying new.
To help you out, the team at Moneyboat.co.uk has compiled a list of top ten food hacks to make your weekly shop go that little bit further.
1. Add salt to your open milk
We know salt in milk sounds disgusting, but bear with us.
Opened milk can stay fresh for anything between four and ten days, with milk alternatives lasting even longer. But since it can go sour almost overnight, the turn can take us by surprise.
According to Moneyboat, adding just a pinch of salt to the carton immediately after opening can help keep it fresher for longer.
Salt is a preservative, so it helps stop bacteria from growing. It’s also in such a small concentration that you won’t notice it in your morning cuppa.
However, do make sure to give the carton a good shake and place it into the fridge as soon as possible.
2. Store your milk in the coolest part of the fridge
You should also stop storing your milk in the fridge door, as this is actually the warmest part of the fridge.
If you can, store milk at the back of the middle or higher shelves, where it will be closer to the cooling system.
Cold milk lasts much longer than warm milk!
3. Wrap hard cheese in parchment paper
Plastic packaging is bad for the environment – it can take up to 1,000 years to degrade. It also suffocates cheese, making it sweat.
Ditch that and instead wrap hard cheese in parchment, baking, or reusable beeswax paper. This stops the cheese from drying out, but also keeps excess moisture out and stops mould from growing.
Hard cheese can usually last up to four weeks when stored correctly in the fridge – don’t forget to use rinds in cooking, too.
4. Vinegar bath your veggies
Giving your veggies a vinegar bath cleans them much better than water. Vinegar disinfects, cleans, and removes any bacteria – which, as we’ve learned, keeps food fresher for longer.
You absolutely do not want to be pouring vinegar all over your produce, though.
Instead, make a solution that’s a 1:3 ratio of vinegar to water in either a bowl or your clean sink. If you can taste the vinegar on the food afterwards, you’ve used too much.
Let the veg sit in the bath for 15 minutes. Once that’s done, rinse and dry them off before moving them to their respective storage containers.
5. Store berries with a paper towel
Paper towels are a saviour for fresh produce, as they help absorb that pesky excess moisture that serves as a breeding ground for germs.
Washed berries should be dried and popped into airtight glass containers with a dry paper towel. If you don’t have glass containers, adding paper towels to the original packaging or layering them in baskets you pop in the fridge.
Moneyboat suggests changing the paper towel every other day to ‘allow for maximum freshness and a shelf life of up to three weeks.’
This works for bags of spinach too, which notoriously go soggy quickly.
6. Keep bananas separate from other fruits
Quick science lesson: All fruits produce a certain level of a gas known as ‘ethylene’.
Some produce more than others, these include apples, peaches, pears, melons and avocado.
Bananas produce a higher concentration when they are ready to ripen to speed up the ripening process – which speeds up the ripening of nearby fruits.
Keeping the ethylene-producing fruits away from your ethylene-sensitive fruits and veggies – including berries, cucumbers, carrots, and broccoli – helps preserve them for longer.
To help stop bananas browning quite to fast, try hanging them up, wrapping the stems in cling film or, for long-term freshness, peel them and pop in the freezer.
7. Treat your fresh herbs like flowers
Fresh herbs make all the difference to dishes, but they don’t last very long as they dry out and wilt.
To keep them alive for up to three weeks, the trick is to treat them like flowers and pop them into a jar with water.
Moneyboat recommends putting a plastic bag over the top to act as a barrier, but you can skip that if you’re avoiding using excess plastic.
It’s better to store fresh herbs in the fridge, so if you don’t have space, an airtight container with a damp paper towel is best.
8. Freeze fresh herbs
If you try this and notice you still don’t use up herbs quickly enough, freezing them is a good option.
You can store fresh-cut herbs in olive oil or water in ice cube trays, freezing them for perfect portions – the more you know!
This method works for fresh garlic, chilli, and ginger too.
9. Ice your bread
Stale bread won’t kill you, but it won’t be pleasant or particularly edible.
Instead of throwing it away, rub an ice cube over the loaf or slice, before popping it into the oven for 10 minutes.
Dousing it in water works too, but you have to use it that same day.
10. Freeze nuts
Most nuts and seeds will last for six months, but if you bulk buy and worry about getting through them that quickly then you can extend the shelf life by storing them in cool, dark spaces.
The back of the cupboard does the trick, but you can also keep them in the fridge.
Alternatively, if you find that six months is not enough time to nibble your way through your nuts, then you’ll be pleased to hear that they can be frozen – which keeps them fresh for up to a year.