We all know we should be eating more fresh produce and cooking our meals at home, but it can be tough when you open your fridge and cupboards to find the food you bought just a few days ago has already started to go off. This is a big problem with fresh fruit and veg, but there are steps you can take to make your produce go further – by storing it properly.
And one item many of us aren’t storing the right way is our onions. Food experts claim onions need somewhere cool, dark, and dry to help them stay fresh for longer, and there are even certain vegetables that they should never be stored with as they could be encouraged to go off even faster.
According to Bon Appetit, moisture and light are things onions can’t stand, as they “lead to mould and sprouting”, so they should be stored “in a dry, well-ventilated basket, bin, or large bowl”. You should keep them out of the sunlight, but they also shouldn’t be kept in freezing environments either, so placing them in a dark cupboard is the best bet.
And, bizarrely, you should never store your onions with your potatoes. Recipe developer Sarah Jampel explained: “I keep mine in the cabinet with all of my baking dishes, but in the future, I aspire to buy crates’ worth and stow them in a garage or cellar. You also want to make sure they’re separated from potatoes – which are prone to rotting if kept nearby.”
If the onions you buy come in a plastic bag, then this should be discarded as soon as you get home from the supermarket, as plastic can “quickly cause spoilage” due to a lack of air circulation and an increase in moisture. Stop Food Waste said: “Never keep these items in sealed plastic as it will quickly cause spoilage.”
You don’t need to splash out on a dedicated onion basket though, as you can keep them in a paper bag or a mesh bag, as both of these will allow for better airflow and will help keep moisture levels down. You can even use an old pair of tights by putting the onions into one leg and tying a knot between each one.
When stored at the right temperature and under the right conditions, onions can last for a long time. In fact, according to The Chef’s Garden cookbook, onions stored between -1 degrees C (30F) and 10 degrees C (50F) “will keep for up to one year”. At warmer temperatures, they’ll at least last several weeks.
