Making Produce Last Longer with FreshWorks

One of my biggest kitchen frustrations is being forced to throw away food because it's spoiled before I've had the chance to consume it. This happens to me more frequently than I would care to admit to. I try to be organized with my grocery shopping and cooking schedule. But I live by myself. And there are some days when I need to make two, three or even four dishes for my job. So I often end up with way more food than a single person can reasonably consume. And that's when food spoilage becomes a real problem.

Apparently I'm not alone. Americans waste 23 billion pounds of fresh produce each year because it has spoiled before we can eat it. That's a lot of dollar bills going straight into our trash cans!

So when Rubbermaid asked me to review their FreshWorks Produce Savers, I jumped at the chance to try them out!

Rubbermaid FreshWorks Produce Savers have two key features that help to keep food looking and tasting better for longer: 1) a venting system that regulates the flow of oxygen and carbon dioxide into and out of the container, and 2) a tray which elevates food off the bottom of the container, keeping food away from moisture and allowing for proper airflow.

To put my FreshWorks Produce Savers to the test, I set up a little experiment. I purchased two containers each of baby spinach leaves, strawberries and blueberries from my local grocery store. Then I transferred one container of each to the FreshWorks Produce Savers, while leaving the second set in their original containers. I tucked them all away in my refrigerator and monitored the appearance and taste of my produce over a 20 day period.

First, let me just say that I love how the containers look. They are stackable, dishwasher and microwave safe, and they come in three different sizes to accommodate all different types of fruits and vegetables. I like how they help to keep my refrigerator more organized!

During the first week of my experiment, I didn't notice any differences in the quality of my produce between the FreshWorks Produce Savers and the original containers. But during the second week, I started to detect some difference. Some of the blueberries that were in their original container were starting to wrinkle and become less firm, while the blueberries in the FreshWorks Produce Saver were still plump and crisp. The strawberries that were in their original container all had soft spots and four of them had visible mold on their surface, while none of the strawberries in the FreshWorks Produce Saver had mold. A few did exhibit some soft spots, but all the strawberries in the FreshWorks Produce Saver were still edible. At this point, the baby spinach was still indistinguishable between the FreshWorks Produce Saver and it's original container.

By week three, the differences were even more clear, especially with respect to the strawberries. All of the strawberries from the original container exhibited varying degrees of mold on their surface, making them all inedible. Incredibly, only two strawberries from the FreshWorks Produce Saver had mold growing on their surface. Some of the blueberries from the FreshWorks Produce Saver were starting to wrinkle and soften, but not to the same level as the blueberries in the original container. And a few blueberries from the original container had mold on their surface, while none of the FreshWorks Produce Saver blueberries showed any signs of mold. The differences in the baby spinach were much more subtle. The baby spinach leaves from the original container were more limp and had a less crisp texture than the baby spinach leaves that had been stored in the FreshWorks Produce Saver.

In general, I'm impressed with the results I observed from the FreshWorks Produce Savers. I would like to try the FreshWorks Produce Saver with a different type of leafy green to see if the difference in quality is more apparent. But I can definitely recommend this product for the storage of fragile berries. The overall freshness of the blueberries and strawberries was much greater in the FreshWorks Produce Savers, even 20 days after I had purchased the ingredients. The FreshWorks Produce Savers will definitely make my produce last longer and help me reduce food waste in my kitchen.