Storing tomatoes in the fridge may seem like the obvious place to keep them, but this could be causing them to become flavourless before their time.
Tomatoes can be a complicated fruit to keep fresh as they need to be stored differently depending on how ripe they are, and newly bought, green or unripened tomatoes should never be kept in the fridge.
Louise Huynh, a food waste expert from OddBox, explained that tomatoes cannot ripen in the fridge due to the cold temperature, causing them to have no flavour, be softer and go watery.
She said: “Not-yet-ripened tomatoes are best kept at room temperature and out of direct sunlight.
“Store them stem side-down, not touching, and in a single layer. Don’t put them in the fridge as this will impact the ripening process.”
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If you ever need to speed up the ripening process in tomatoes, place them on a windowsill in direct sunlight or place them near your fruit bowl.
Tomatoes release ethylene gas, a growth hormone which helps fruits grow, but it also causes them to ripen and can affect any nearby fruits.
It is important to keep ethylene-producing fruits such as tomatoes, apples or bananas away from each other if you wish to prevent them from spoiling before their time.
However, keeping these fruits near each other is the best natural way to ripen them if you need to.
Once you are ready to eat your tomatoes, take them out of the fridge and let them go back to room temperature before cooking with them, as it will help bring out more flavour.
Louise said: “Make sure you take them out the fridge before eating, however, as the cold flattens their flavours.”
