It Turns Out, You Can Store Tomatoes in the Fridge (2024)

FAQs

It Turns Out, You Can Store Tomatoes in the Fridge? ›

Can you store tomatoes in the fridge? Queue the shocked gasps. Yes, you can store tomatoes in the fridge. However, since most tomatoes are sold or bought a bit before their ideal ripeness to account for the changes they'll undergo when sitting out, placing them in the fridge will actually halt their progress.

The Short Answer: Don't Refrigerate Tomatoes

The standard rule is to keep tomatoes out of the refrigerator. It all comes down to science: Tomatoes contain an enzyme that reacts to cold temperatures, causing the cell membranes to break down and leaving you with a piece of fruit that's mushy and mealy.

You just showed that tomatoes rot faster at room temperature than in the refrigerator. Big whoop... But that's exactly the point: If you're buying your tomatoes ripe (which we should all be doing!) and need to store them for an extra day or two, you're often better off storing them in the fridge than on the countertop.

You can slow ripening by storing tomatoes at around 50 degrees, in somewhere like a root cellar or a small wine fridge devoted to produce, McDermott says. But for most of us, our only options are a much warmer room temperature or a much colder refrigerator.

For acidic foods such as canned tomatoes, metal leaching out from the lining of the can is a possibility, says Carl Batt, a professor of food microbiology at Cornell University.

If the tomatoes are not yet ripe, they are best stored on the counter for a few days until they ripen. (You'll know they're ripe when they're fragrant and give a little bit to the touch.) Once they're ripe, either consume them or go ahead and put them in the refrigerator to preserve their freshness.

Unless you're a busy diner going through and refilling ketchup bottles every day or two, you should store your ketchup in the fridge. This is because, just like pickles, the flavor and texture declines after you open the bottle or jar and the ketchup is exposed to air.

Tomato Storage Method: Stem Side-Up with a Taped Stem

The theory is the same as the upside-down tomatoes, in which you create a barrier to potential bits of bacteria and mold. Place a small piece of tape (any kind will do) over the small stem bump and leave it there until you are ready to use your tomato.

WHAT VEGETABLES SHOULD NOT BE REFRIGERATED? Vegetables that should not be refrigerated include avocados, bell peppers, onions and potatoes. Some vegetables that you may want to refrigerate include mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach and asparagus.

According to The National Peanut Board, an unopened jar of peanut butter can last six to nine months at room temperature. Once opened, they say that it can last two to three months in the pantry before you should move it to the fridge, where it can maintain quality for another three to four months.

Should you refrigerate eggs? ›

Fresh eggs purchased from a farmers market need to be refrigerated as soon as you get home. Per USDA guidelines, eggs should be stored at 40 degrees F or below to help minimize the risk of Salmonella. Eggs should be stored in their carton and placed in the coldest part of the refrigerator, not in the door.

The reason a refrigerator is bad for bread: When bread is stored in a cold (but above freezing) environment, this recrystallization, and therefore staling, happens much faster than at warmer temperatures. Freezing, however, dramatically slows the process down. So that's the science in a nutshell.

The ideal place to store bananas is on the countertop, where they can ripen naturally. You can refrigerate bananas once they've achieved your ideal level of ripeness; however, refrigerating bananas too soon or for too long can have detrimental effects on your bunch.

NEW YORK If you buy tomatoes from John Banscher at his farmstand in New Jersey, he'll recommend keeping them out of the fridge or they'll lose some of their taste. Now scientists have figured out why: It's because some of their genes chill out and are altered by cold temperatures, ultimately affecting the flavor.

As Klee explains it, cold temperatures suppress the expression of many genes, some of which are responsible for the enzymes that synthesize the chemicals in a tomato that impart taste and aroma. His research showed that many of the enzymes didn't recover after being chilled.

It'll stay fizzy for 2 days in the fridge!

Not only should you keep your cukes on the counter, but be sure to keep them separately from bananas, tomatoes, and melons, which are all high ethylene producers.

Tomatoes and bananas

This pair is actually on the list of what fruit and veggies not to store together. Fruits and vegetables that do a lot of ripening after they're picked, such as tomatoes, bananas, kiwis and honeydew melons, are best stored apart.