stored

Lifestyle

8 Foods That You Have Definitely Stored Incorrectly so Far

October 26, 2025

A simple but effective measure against food waste is to store food properly. However, there are many common misconceptions. We explain why your food spoils in the first place – and which common mistakes you should avoid when storing it.

1. Watery vegetables don’t go in the fridge

Vegetables belong in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator – sounds logical, but it’s not always true. In fact, it is a question of the variety: Cucumbers, aubergines and courgettes are among the types of vegetables with a high water content, which lose their aroma in the refrigerator and go moldy more quickly.

They are therefore better kept at room temperature, ideally even in the basement or in a pantry with temperatures around 15 degrees.

2. Please do not store all types of fruit together

Storing fruit correctly is relatively complicated: On the one hand, it is important to distinguish between varieties that ripen later and those that do not. The latter, such as berries, cherries, grapes, should be eaten promptly. On the other hand, it depends on whether the fruits themselves give off the natural gas ethylene, which influences the ripening process, or whether they are particularly sensitive to it.

Examples of cultivars that give off ethylene are apples, apricots, peaches, plums and bananas. Bananas are also sensitive to ethylene, but so are kiwis, pears, watermelons and citrus fruits. These two groups do not belong side by side; unless you take advantage of the effect to let individual fruits ripen faster.

If you don’t quite understand the interactions and just want the fruit to last as long as possible, it’s better not to store it together in a fruit bowl – even if it looks decorative. The same applies to heat-sensitive varieties that go into the vegetable drawer in the refrigerator: make sure that the “neighbors” do not have a negative influence.

3. Kiwis and fresh figs need refrigeration

Tropical fruits usually like it warm and do not tolerate cool storage well. Mangoes, bananas, pineapples and all citrus fruits should therefore not be stored in the refrigerator.

But exceptions confirm the rule: kiwis are also tropical fruits, but they can still be kept in the refrigerator – provided they have already reached their ripeness and do not need to be left to ripen at room temperature. They will keep refrigerated for up to two or three weeks. You should also keep fresh figs in the fridge – but only for a few days. The sooner you eat them, the better.

4. You have to store avocados differently depending on how ripe they are

Long transport routes and high water consumption: avocados are problematic from an environmental point of view and should therefore not be on the table every day – and if they are, then if possible in organic quality. The poor eco-balance of the green stone fruit is one more reason to ensure proper storage and to prevent the precious avocado from ending up in the trash.

Whole fruits that are not yet ripe are best stored at room temperature without excessive exposure to light – note that avocados are also one of the ethylene-emitting varieties and thus allow other fruits to ripen faster.

A ripe avocado that you don’t want to eat right away, on the other hand, is better kept in the refrigerator, where its ripening process is interrupted – this way it will keep for another two to three days. Extra tip: Halved avocados stay fresh longer in the fridge if you don’t remove the pit.

5. Tomatoes and lettuce need separation

A fresh leaf salad can be perfectly combined with tomatoes. However, storing both together in the vegetable drawer of the fridge is not a good idea.

You actually make two mistakes: Tomatoes give off ethylene and make the lettuce wilt faster. Incidentally, as a vegetable containing water, they are not well kept in the refrigerator anyway; they lose their aroma and go moldy faster.

It is better to store tomatoes at room temperature and keep the salad fresh in the fridge – unwashed, wrapped in a damp tea towel or placed in a freshness box.

6. Don’t put milk (products) in the wrong place in the refrigerator

The door is the warmest part of the fridge – and well-suited for ketchup, mustard and the like. However, what has no place there is fresh milk: it keeps around five degrees longer in the middle compartment of the fridge; Yoghurt, quark and cream as well. The top tier is the perfect temperature for butter.

For cheese, the crisper or middle rack is a good choice. However, the most important rule here (apart from cream cheese) is: do not pack airtight! It is better to use a cheese box or special cheese paper for this. However, you can store cheese slices in the original packaging.

7. Bread needs different storage depending on the season

When it comes to bread, there is no one-size-fits-all recommendation for proper storage. If it’s very hot and humid in the summer, you can actually refrigerate it to prevent mold. Otherwise, dry refrigerator air does the bread no favors and makes it stale.

For the rest of the year you should therefore store fresh bread from the baker at room temperature – a bread box or a ceramic bread pot is ideal for this. Stale bread can also be used wonderfully in delicious recipes.

8. The freezer doesn’t preserve food forever

In order not to waste food, it is a good idea to freeze leftovers before they spoil. So you can store them for a particularly long time – but not indefinitely. What many do not know: food in the freezer lasts for different lengths of time.

You should freeze fruit and vegetables for around 11 to 15 months, beef and poultry can be preserved for 9 to 12 months – fish and fatty meat for only 6 to 9 months. It is best to label containers in the freezer with information about the contents and the date: this way you can keep track of everything.

How does food go bad anyway?

Certain natural changes can spoil our food. The most common of these is microbial: moulds, yeasts or bacteria ensure that food goes mouldy, rots, ferments or becomes sour. Physical influences such as temperature, time or humidity cause the bread to dry out or the lettuce to wilt. And chemical and biochemical changes lead, for example, to fat becoming rancid through contact with oxygen or to enzymes in food breaking down vitamins, colorings and flavorings.

The good news is that when we buy fresh food, we can influence how long it lasts by storing it optimally. For example, the refrigerator slows down the cell metabolism of food and allows microorganisms to grow more slowly. A pantry or pantry protects against sunlight and moisture, delaying spoilage. We just have to learn to use these achievements properly.

Keep Reading

Food

10 Foods You Always Stored Wrong

October 26, 2025

If you store your food properly, you get more out of it – namely more taste and less waste. The following tips will help you avoid common mistakes and store your food optimally.

Because of the spread of the corona virus, we should currently stay at home if possible, whoever is in quarantine even has to. Neither hamster purchases nor stock panic are appropriate. But it makes sense to keep our groceries fresh at home for as long as possible so that we don’t have to run to the supermarket all the time.

Store food properly = less waste

Around 12 million tons of food end up in the garbage in Germany every year (BZfE). We consumers are also to blame for this: We cause about half of the food waste ourselves. Because we buy too much, let the best-before date unsettle us, or because we store food incorrectly and it spoils faster.

So, storing food properly not only helps preserve nutrients and flavor, but also reduces food waste.

Tomatoes don’t belong in the fridge

Tomatoes lose their flavor in the fridge and can even go moldy faster. It is better if you keep them in a cool room (e.g. cellar or pantry); a temperature of around 15 degrees is ideal.

If you don’t have such a space: storing tomatoes at room temperature still makes more sense than in the fridge. Incidentally, this also applies to some other types of vegetables with a high water content, such as cucumbers, peppers, zucchini and aubergines.

But be careful: In order to keep tomatoes for a long time, it is best not to store them next to apples – unless you want them to ripen faster.

Bread molds in plastic

Apart from the fact that you shouldn’t buy plastic-packaged supermarket bread anyway: Bread keeps best if you store it in an air-permeable container. Packed airtight in plastic, it quickly begins to mold. The supposedly old-fashioned bread boxes therefore make perfect sense. Clay pots are ideal because they keep the bread fresh for the longest time.

Bananas and apples don’t mix

As beautiful as a colorful fruit bowl looks: (ripe) bananas and apples are best not stored together.

Bananas brown faster next to apples because apples emit a lot of the ripening gas ethylene and bananas are sensitive to it. Ethylene accelerates ripening – and causes other fruit to spoil faster. Incidentally, pears and tomatoes also give off ethylene.

Because ripe bananas emit a particularly large amount of ethylene, they should always be stored separately from other fruit and vegetables – ideally hanging up, because they easily bruise in the fruit bowl. They definitely don’t belong in the fridge: Bananas turn brown quickly there.

Cheese must be able to breathe

Cheese should not be wrapped in plastic and/or stored airtight. It keeps better if you keep it in air-permeable packaging, for example in a slightly damp cloth, in cheese paper (wax paper) or oilcloth.

Tip: Many cheese dealers at the weekly market will wrap the cheese in cheese paper for you, or you can have it put directly into a container you have brought with you – in the supermarket you can usually only get plastic.

Lemons don’t like the cold

Lemons and other citrus fruits such as oranges or tangerines do not tolerate cold – you should therefore not store them in the refrigerator. At (not too high) room temperature and storage open, they stay fresh longer.

Even cut lemons can be kept for a week at room temperature. It is best to place them cut-side up on a plate so that they can form a thin skin and not go mouldy.

Mushrooms need air

You usually buy mushrooms in plastic trays in the supermarket. But they do better if you keep them in paper bags or wrapped in a tea towel in the refrigerator at home: the mushrooms must be able to “breathe”, in airtight plastic packaging they quickly become damp and spoil.

In addition, it is best not to store mushrooms in the immediate vicinity of odorous foods, as they easily absorb foreign odors.

In any case, mushrooms should be used up quickly, because they don’t keep for more than a few days.

Strawberries are better left unwashed

If you plan on eating strawberries that day, it’s best to store them at room temperature that long. Since water strips the flavor of the fruit, only wash it right before eating.

Important with strawberries: Always cut out rotten spots immediately or remove the fruit. Mold will otherwise spread quickly because of its high water content.

Strawberries will keep in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator for up to two days. For this it is important that you store the strawberries unwashed in the refrigerator.

Tip: You can place the strawberries in a large sieve so that they get enough air. Place paper towels or an old tea towel underneath to soak up excess liquid.

Store leftovers without plastic waste

Many people cover leftovers from dinner or cut fruit and vegetables with cling film and then store them in the fridge until the next day.

It’s a completely needless waste of plastic: you might as well store such leftovers in reusable, sealable containers — like plastic-free lunch boxes made of stainless steel or glass — or even old screw-top jars.

Advantage: You can take what’s left over with you, well packaged – for example as a ready-made lunch to work. So you save packaging waste there too.

Better to empty cans

It is better not to put opened tin cans in the refrigerator: Unhealthy tin can migrate from the tin plate into the food. Although most cans are now coated with plastic on the inside, this coating has also been criticized because of the questionable chemical BPA it often contains.

You are on the safe side if you pour the contents of the open can into a reusable, sealable container, for example a clean, empty screw-top jar.

Store radishes without greens

If you store them properly, radishes will stay fresh and crunchy for much longer. They belong in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator, where they will keep for at least three days.

The trick: cut off the leaves and roots beforehand. This prevents the water stored in the tubers from going into the leaves and keeps the radishes crisp longer.

It is best to store the radishes in a tin or wrapped in a damp cloth.