How to store food for longer without using plastic
Olivia covers sustainability at Which? writing about companies who greenwash, all things rubbish and recycling, and trying to get to the heart of some complex environmental issues.
Whether you are concerned about microplastics, want to reduce food waste, or are simply trying to limit your reliance on plastic, there are lots of alternative options when it comes to keeping food fresh in the kitchen.
There are more sustainable options than using single-use plastics and plastic food storage. And some of them will keep your food fresher for longer.
1) Store herbs and vegetables in water
Leafy, green herbs and some vegetables, including carrots and celery, can be stored in jars of water and kept in the fridge or even out on the countertop.
Cut carrots can be kept submerged in water in a sealed container. Herbs should only have their stems in the water.
For vegetables you want to keep crisp, such as beans and lettuce, wrapping them in a damp cloth or tea towel in the fridge can also keep them fresher for longer.
2) Keep most fruit and veg in the fridge
Most fruit and vegetables will last much longer in the fridge.
Exceptions include bananas and unripe avocados, which need to ripen at room temperature.
It used to be advised that potatoes were kept out of the fridge but the FSA has recently revised this advice.
3) Use beeswax wraps
Keeping air away from food is essential for preserving it for longer periods. Rather than using disposable clingfilm for this job, try to switch to reusable options. This might include reusable tupperware and silicon covers, or for a completely plastic-free option, you can buy beeswax wraps.
If you're up for a craft project, you can even make your own by dipping pieces of cotton into melted beeswax.
Bread, cheese, cut avocado, bowls of leftovers, sandwiches and many more can all be preserved by sealing in an airtight wrap.
Even just wrapping dry products such as bread or leftover crackers in a clean, non-coated cloth can stop them from going stale as quickly.
4) Make sure your fridge is cold enough
The temperature of your fridge should be between 0°C and 5°C.
This may not be the default setting, so you may need to adjust it. And the settings aren't always as obvious as you would think – a 1-6 scale, for example, may be measured in degrees centigrade or in levels of power. In the latter case, confusingly, 1 would be the warmest and 6 would be the coldest.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) says that 8°C–60 °C is the danger zone for cultivating unsafe levels of bacteria. In other words, food is safest when it is chilled below 8°C or heated above 60°C, at which temperature bacteria begins to die.
Your fridge freezer won't set itself to the correct temperatures automatically. Make sure you check the manual and follow the instructions carefully.
Some fridges can arrive with settings that keep them surprisingly warm – our tests have found that the manufacturer's recommended setting in the worst models sent the fridge temperature soaring above 10°C.
For more tips on how to use your fridge freezer efficiently see 10 ways to keep food fresher for longer.
5) Freeze in glass and steel
Freezer-safe glass and steel containers provide a durable and long-lasting alternative to plastic for freezing leftovers.
When frozen, plastic can become brittle. This can cause tiny fragments to break off and release as microplastics. Heating products in plastic containers also increases the release of microplastics which can leach directly into the food itself.
So while plastic tupperware is fine for everyday storage and chilling, if you're preparing food for the freezer or the microwave it's useful to have alternatives on hand.
Get tips on everyday kitchen habits: 10 products Which? experts use to simplify their weekly meal prep, from glass storage containers to vegetable choppers
What's the problem with plastic?
Plastic is made from fossil fuels – either crude oil or natural gas. Plus, the process of refining and manufacturing it into its final form uses a lot of energy and has a large carbon footprint.
On top of that, plastic doesn't biodegrade in the way that organic materials do. Over years and decades it breaks down into smaller fragments, which ultimately turn into microplastics.
Microplastics are defined as any plastic fragments measuring less than 5mm across. They come from large products, such as plastic bags, bottles or plastic packaging, breaking down into smaller pieces and shedding into the environment around them.
There is strong evidence that microplastics cause significant environmental harm. They can interfere with the ability of small organisms and plants to store carbon. This particularly disrupts the blue carbon cycle – the carbon stored by marine life – which is critical in mitigating climate change.
The evidence for their impact on human health is less established. However, lab studies suggest that they can cause oxidative stress (an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants in the body), which can lead to cellular and tissue damage, disruption of the gut microbiome and immune or inflammatory responses.
Repeatedly heating or freezing plastics (such as storage containers) can exacerbate this breakdown. That makes food preparation and storage a particular source of exposure to microplastics.
Read more on: should we be worried about microplastics?
Reducing food waste
However, the picture isn't completely black and white. Immediately ridding your kitchen of all plastic products isn't an environmentally friendly option if it means an increase to the amount of food you waste.
In the UK, domestic households are responisble for a huge amount of food waste. In fact, 60% (6.64 million tonnes) of the annual 10.7 million tonnes of total UK food waste comes from households.
Globally, food waste accounts for 8-10% of annual greenhouse gas emissions. An oft-cited UN statistic states that if global food waste was a country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter, after China and the USA.
So while planning your shopping carefully so that you aren't buying too much is obviously a good - and cost-effective - place to start, keeping your food fresh for as long as possible is also a crucial way to make sure you use up as much of the food you buy as possible.
Find out more about supermarket sustainability: supermarkets and the environment