Did you know that storing certain fruits and vegetables together causes them to spoil more quickly? It all comes down to ethylene gas. This odourless vapour is given off by fruit after they are picked. Some types of fruit produce much more gas than others and, although it’s harmless to health, it causes other fruit and vegetables to quickly ripen and spoil. And if you store these high ethylene produces together with those that are particularly sensitive to it, especially in an enclosed space or bag, you’ll end up spending more to replace the spoils.
A good rule of thumb is to avoid storing fruit and vegetables together, but in planning your kitchen storage it helps to know which are the biggest ethylene producers, and which are most sensitive to its effects:
High and medium gas releasers: Apples, apricots, avocados, bananas, cantaloupe and honeydew melons, kiwi fruit, mangoes, nectarines, papayas, peaches, pears, plums, tomatoes.
Most sensitive to ethylene: Apples, asparagus, avocados, aubergines, broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, kiwi fruit, lettuce and other leafy greens, potatoes, squash, watermelons.
Some fruit are both ethylene producers and ethylene sensitive, and the behaviour of others changes as they mature. Unripe avocados, for example, emit little ethylene but are highly sensitive if exposed to it – once they ripen they produce higher levels of the gas and their own sensitivity is reduced. Kiwis and bananas also produce more gas as they ripen.
While it’s normally a good idea to keep ethylene-producing fruit and sensitive veggies separate, you can also turn this phenomenon to your advantage. If you have an unripe avocado or banana and want to speed its ripening, seal it in a bag with an apple or other ethylene-producer and it’ll ripen more quickly than usual.
Knowing which foodstuffs you should and shouldn’t store together will allow you to get the most out of the food you buy and reduce the amount you throw out as waste. Happy storing!