As food waste reduction and sustainability became an important part of our food dynamics, it’s essential to explore the ways to not make your food get expired. Stepping out of the house to make a grocery trip might be a fun time for most people but some of us struggle with it, and it really gets annoying if most food items end up getting expired quickly. Less number of expired food items in a kitchen will also reduce the chances of you falling victim to the COVID-19 and many other diseases. Moreover, ensuring you buy nothing but the best quality products online can add to your safety. You can check out this trusted seller if you want to buyweedonline ca legit online.
Food Preservation Techniques
Its important also that your food stay fresh when at the beach so you stay safe. Preservatives are crucial for the safety, preservation, and freshness of foods. Many food types are enjoyable for a long time because of modern preservation techniques. Preservatives are the ingredients that can be added to your food items and preservation is defined as a technique/process that helps elongate the freshness of those food items. There are two types of food preservation techniques.
Physical and Chemical Preservation Techniques
Physical food preservation techniques involve salting, refrigerating, and storing food items, while chemical techniques involve smoking and drying meats and veggies to make yogurt, kimchi and sauerkraut, and preserve them for a longer time. Both of these methods prevent food from quick oxidation. Therefore, to make sure your food isn’t expired, have a look at these physical and chemical food preservation techniques.
1. Freeze Ingredients That are About to Expire
To make the most of the food items that are close to their expiry date, freeze them. They will last indefinitely in a freezer. The extremely low temperature in a freezer keeps the food safe by preventing different microorganisms from growing, by slowing down the enzyme activity that spoils food. However, one thing for which you should watch out is freezer burn. It won’t make your food unsafe but will definitely alter the taste and makes it inedible. To make sure that this doesn’t happen, choose the correct and suitable packaging for vegetables, meat, and fruit.
2. Airtight The Food Items
According to a study, oxygen can significantly shorten the shelf-life of many foods. Dry store foods, like nuts, flour, dried fruit, granola, spices, cereal, and bread last way longer when kept away from oxygen. To store bread and different opened food packets, make use of bread tin, recycle handy jars, or air-tight containers.
The most popular Master Chef, Gordon Ramsay, also advised storing the food items in airtight containers to make them last longer, i.e. expanding their expiry date. Additionally, to ensure the safety of foods that you’re buying, make sure to undergo a detailed food product verification process beforehand.
3. Pickle Fresh Veggies
If you’re looking for a productive activity to get rid of the boredom and save your food from getting expired as well, pickle some of the fresh fruits and veggies. The pickling process preserves the food by anaerobic fermentation in brine (water and salt solution). For instance, to pickle onion slices, you need some sugar, salt, white or red vine, spices, and herbs.
When food is properly stored in a mason jar, the pickled form of these fruits and veggies lasts as long as two months in the fridge. This process does not only preserve your fresh produce but also provides an unrivaled sour and sweet flour to your stored food items. To help you out with sorting different foods, here’s an insight on which foods are likely to get expired quickly/late.
Different Food Items and Their Estimated Expiration Period
| Foods with Short-term Expiry Date | Estimated Expiration Period | Foods with Long-term Expiry Date | Estimated Expiration Period |
| Berries | 5-7 days | Ketchup and Mustard | 8 months – 1 year |
| Tomatoes | 7-10 days | Whole Grains | 2 years |
| Potatoes | 15 days | Pickles | 2 to 5 years |
| Green beans | 5- 7 days | Whole Spices | Decades |
| Avocadoes | 3-4 days | Beef Jerky | 1 year |
4. Store Potatoes in a Cool & Dark Place
There is a way to maximize the shelf-life of potatoes and you can save this very important vegetable from perishing with a simple process. All you’ve got to do is find a suitable, cool, and dark place for its storage. Make sure to not store them in a humid fridge but in a dry, cool, and well-ventilated space. This way, they’ll survive for up to four months. A cupboard, pantry, garage, or basement are all perfect places to store raw potatoes.
Don’t wash them until you need them for cooking, otherwise, they’ll become moldy. Uncut onions can also be stored in similar environments, to save them from getting expired. Just like the way you take different home security measures, your food items also need some serious look after and care, for longer life spans.
5. Keep Fresh Produce in Top Shelf
To make sure that most of your food items remain fresh and don’t go bad, try storing them on top shelves of the refrigerator. Placement in the fridge is of utmost importance and plays a great part in maintaining the shelf-life of many fresh fruits and vegetables. According to the food experts, the farther any food item is from the door, the more time it’ll stay fresh.
Try keeping your fresh food items closer to the fridge and on the top shelf. This way, you won forget to use it, keeping in mind that it has a shorter shelf-life. You can also store your fruits and vegetables in crispy drawers of the fridge, which are specifically designed to preserve fresh produce. Refrigerators usually come with two types of drawers, high-humidity drawers, and low-humidity drawers. Fruits require lower humidity while vegetables remain fresher in higher humidity drawers.
Hybrid Food Preservation Techniques
Generally, physical and chemical food preservation methods are not mutually exclusive. With the few additional processes and ingredients, hybrid preservation techniques (e.g. canning) can stop your food items from expiring quickly. Additionally, low-sodium canned beans can also act as one of the most useful items to eat when the power goes out. Therefore, to can your food safely, you must ensure that,
- The lid and canning jar are sterile, this involves washing the jar with boiling water
- With the addition of a chemical such as salt or ascorbic acid (vitamin C), the food contents reach a certain acidity level
- The lid is completely sealed, thus limiting the oxygen needed by microbial organisms for their survival, and preventing them from contaminating foods. This specifically requires a physical preservation method of heating the jars
Food Preservatives Help Elongate Expiry Date
The food you eat is not only meant to fill up your tummy but also must be fresh and healthy. Being loaded with different essential nutrients, foods like meat, fruits, and vegetables improve the overall quality of your lifestyle. Therefore, to live healthily and not fall victim to expired food, you must look out for environmental conditions or factors that trigger the freshness of food items and get them expired quickly. Henceforth, make use of different advanced preservatives to elongate the shelf-life of different foods and prevent them from bacteria, fungi, and yeasts.