Organize Your Fridge: Storing Food for Maximum Freshness

Ensure maximum freshness by following food storage tips.

We know it’s good to pack our refrigerators with healthy foods and snacks like fruit and vegetables, but how and where should we store them to ensure they stay fresh for as long as possible? No one wants to be the one to throw away a half-full bag of soggy spinach. Follow these food storage tips to safeguard your refrigerated food for as long as you can. 

The door (warmest part of the fridge): 

  • Butter 
  • Condiments
  • Juice
  • Cooking oils
  • Soda
  • Water

The crisper drawers:

  • Apples
  • Avocados (once ripe)
  • Mushrooms
  • Peaches
  • Pears
  • Plums
  • Peppers
  • Melon (once ripe)
  • Summer squash
  • Broccoli 
  • Carrots
  • Cauliflower
  • Leafy greens

The lower shelf:

  • Eggs
  • Milk
  • Raw fish, meat and poultry (on trays to catch drippings)

The upper shelf:

  • Jam and jelly
  • Leftovers
  • Peanut butter
  • Hummus
  • Fruit cups
  • Yogurt

Foods that DON’T belong in the fridge:

  • Bananas
  • Onions (store in cool, dry place)
  • Potatoes (store in cool, dry place)
  • Tomatoes
Marie Albiges: Marie Albiges is a recent Christopher Newport University graduate and a freelance journalist in the Newport News area. She is a writer and aspiring yoga teacher who prefers literary classics over Netflix, cats over dogs and coffee over anything else in the world.