From Matt O’Neill and the team at Metabolic Jump Start
Keeping your food as fresh as possible ensures the maximum nutrient value to optimise your body’s metabolic function. With this in mind, here are tips, listed in the Metabolic Jump Start food groups, for how to keep food fresh and safe to eat.
Vegetables Pantry
¨ Garlic, onions, potatoes, pumpkin, Swedes and sweet potatoes should be kept at room temperature away from sunlight.
Fridge
¨ Store most ripe or cut vegetables in the crisper section of your fridge at or below 5o C.
¨ Vegetables should be refrigerated as soon as possible after cutting or peeling if they are not being cooked immediately.
Freezer
¨ Raw onions, mushrooms, rhubarb and chillies can be stored in the freezer for up to 6 months. Wash, dry and then package in freezer bags with excess air removed.
¨ Cooked vegetables can be stored in the freezer for up to 6 months however, once de-frosted may not retain their original shape and texture.
¨ Frozen vegetables will generally retain their nutrient value, so are good convenient alternative to fresh when you are short on produce or time. Fruit Pantry ¨ Bananas should be stored at room temperature but out of sunlight.
¨ The following fruit can be kept at room temperature until ripe, and then should be refrigerated; apricots, avocados, kiwifruit, mangoes, melons, nectarines, papaya, peaches, pears, plums and tomatoes.
Fridge
¨ Store most ripe or cut fruit in the fridge at or below 5o C. Fruit should be refrigerated as soon as possible after cutting or peeling to avoid contamination.
Freezer
¨ Frozen berries are nutrient-rich and ideal over winter when it’s not berry season. ¨ Grapes, mangoes, bananas and berries can all be frozen. It’s a great way to eat fruit in summer and makes for a healthier snack than ice cream!
Next week – some more on the best food storage practices.