Summer is the perfect time to save some money on your food shopping as strawberries are in season and very cheap to buy, but keeping them fresh can be tricky.
Strawberries, like many summer fruits, have a high water and natural sugar content which causes bacteria and mould to begin growing on them quickly.
This means that strawberries will typically only last up to four days when kept in their original supermarket packaging in the fridge, but there is a simple five-minute task to keep them fresher for longer.
On the Reddit forum, Eat Cheap and Healthy, one woman asked if there was a better way to store strawberries after having to throw too many away.
She wrote: “I bought a large container of strawberries on Thursday. By Saturday they were already moulding.
“I picked out the mouldy ones, washed them and put them back in the fridge. Today is Sunday and even eating them super quick…I still feel like I threw too many out.”
Many people quickly rushed to the comment section with suggestions, but the most popular answer was to wash strawberries in a two-ingredient solution before putting them in the fridge.
One user said: “You can also try a vinegar bath. This should kill any spores on the fruit and help it last longer. I typically use a one to five ratio (one cup vinegar to five cups water) but have also seen one to three or one to eight ratios recommended.”
It may seem strange but the acetic acid in white vinegar has antimicrobial properties which will kill any bacteria or mould on the strawberries to prevent spoilage.
How to keep strawberries fresher for longer
All you have to do is fill a bowl with around 1200ml of cold water and roughly 240ml of white vinegar.
Then set a timer for two minutes, submerge the strawberries and leave them to soak for exactly that amount of time.
Do not leave the strawberries to soak for any longer than a couple of minutes, otherwise you can risk them having a vinegary aftertaste.
Once the two minutes are up, take the strawberries out of the vinegar water solution and place them on a tea towel to air dry.
Make sure the strawberries are completely dry before placing them in the fridge as any moisture will encourage mould, then put them in a container with a lid and place them in the fridge.
This quick and easy food storage hack takes less than five minutes to do and will help keep strawberries fresh for up to one or two weeks longer than they typically would last.
To reduce the risk of strawberries spoiling even more, line a container with a paper towel to soak up any excess moisture from the strawberries to ensure they do not spoil.
