Fridge Tips

Keep the fridge at a cool 1 - 5 degrees and chilled food will stay fresh for longer. Our most perishable (and often most expensive) food is kept in the fridge, so keep tabs on their use-by dates - the freezer may be the option for food we won't get round to eating in time.

• Keeping Melons Fresh

  Submitted by Love Food Hate Waste,

  Keep melons cool or in the fridge for freshness and they’ll last up to a week longer than if stored in room temperature. Decant to the fruit bowl prior to eating if preferred.

• Firm Tomatoes

  Submitted by Love Food Hate Waste,

  Tomatoes stay firmer in the fridge if kept in a loosely tied plastic bag or in the pack they were bought in.

• Veg fridge tip

  When you’re cooking a big celebration meal and want to save yourself time on the day of the feast, prepare veg such as carrots, parnips and sprouts on the day before and store them in the fridge in a plastic bag - reusing a plastic bag from the bread or other food bag would be ideal.

• Soft vegetables:

  Put soft carrots and cucumber in a glass of water in the fridge - they'll perk up in no time.

• No more bendy carrots

  Submitted by Anna Griffiths, Leicestershire

  Top and tail unpeeled carrots as soon as you buy them and store them in an airtight container in the fridge. They last for weeks and weeks and weeks.

• Vegetables

  Submitted by Sharron Penfold, Carmarthen, Carmarthen

  If your vegetables are starting to go a bit soft clean then all and put them in water in the fridge this will give you another few days to use them.

• Storing Lemons

  Submitted by Love Food Hate Waste,

  Lemons stay fresh for even longer in the fridge if kept in a loosely tied plastic bag or in the pack they were bought in because they dry out less quickly.

• Use Reuseable plastic containers

  Submitted by Liz Teather, Welwyn, Welwyn

  Use plastic reuseable tubs or short on space and want to use a plastic bag - use the one your bread comes in. Tip out the crumbs and away you go! In fact I haven't bought plastic bags into the house for well over a year, but always seem to have a glut of them from packaging on other items - instead of throwing them away reuse them.

• Fresh and crisp fruit and veg

  Submitted by Jenna, Hartlepool

  In your fruit and veg draw put tin foil in the bottom with the shinny side up. Keeps fruit and veg fresher for longer.

• Bagged Salads

  Submitted by Danni van der Walt, Bristol

  If you transfer your bagged salad leaves into a airtight container that is lined with kitchen roll this will help remove the excess moisure. Your salad with be crisp and dry and it will extents the life of the salad enormously.