Keeping Food Fresher for Longer

If you’ve been following the news lately, you might have discovered that the UK throws away £12bn of edible food each year. Whether down to confusion over sell-by/use-by dates or the poor storage of food, the cost to the average family with children is over £600 a year.

We all want to ensure that food can stay fresh for as long as possible, so we can enjoy it at its best and ultimately save money.

What we can do for our fridge

Proper storage of our food is essential. All those lovely people at refrigeration HQ have designed these appliances to help maximise the length of freshness, so we need to make sure that we are taking full advantage of our cooling appliance.

• Check the food labels to see where they are best suited to be stored. You’d be surprised to learn a small percentage of foods we refrigerate without hesitation would be better suited to room temperature. For example, apples are best kept cool in the fridge while tomatoes should keep at room temperature.
• Take full advantage of your storage compartments. If you have a salad drawer, fill it with your salads. If you have a dairy compartment, keep your cheeses and butter there. These compartments are specifically designed to maximise your produce and preserve them for longer. 
• The lower part of the fridge tends to be the coolest. Keep your meat and fish low and store your drinks and bottles on the top.
• Whether you own a roll of cling film or a large selection of Tupperware, keeping your food covered will stop food from prematurely going off. A must to help get the best from your food.

What our fridge can do for us

Over the years, technology in cooling appliances has greatly improved and we are really starting to feel the benefits. Every year manufacturers are bringing out features which help keep things fresh so you can see the difference in your homes as well as your wallet.

• Anti-bacterial liners: A special coating which is designed to reduce the growth of bacteria in your fridge that love to feast on fresh foods.
• Auto-defrost: By preventing the build up of any ice, your fridge’s performance will never be compromised allowing it to cool at its full potential.
• Frost Free: Not only does this put an end to those weekends wasted trying to de-ice, with no frost build up they’ll be no loss of space maximising storage space, food retains colour and taste after defrosting, and food labels are easier to read. 
• Super cooling: Activating this will lower the temperature of the fridge ensuring food is cooled quicker and preserved for longer.
• Whirlpool’s 6^th sense technology: By monitoring temperature changes, and being able to restore required temperatures 5 times faster than the average fridge, 6^th sense is able to keep food fresher for up to 4 times longer. Seen on the Whirlpool WBC3546ANFCXL Fridge Freezer.
• LG’s Vacuum Fresh: All the air is sucked out of the vegetable compartment which keeps food air tight and improves on freshness. Found on the LG GWL227HHXV American Fridge Freezer.

Our fridges are working 24/7 to ensure it can meet our fresh demands. In return, by making sure we care for and understand how our appliances work we can work together to reduce waste and increase full tummies filled with fresh goods. If everyone worked hard to get the most from their foods and stored it correctly, it would go a long way towards saving some of the billions we waste. Food is a beautiful necessity, let’s not waste it.