Don't store your cucumbers in the fridge (2012) (opens in new tab)

Those tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. were likely refridgerated all the way from the farm to the supermarket display, including in the supermarket's back rooms.

The supermarket is also simultaneously optimizing for other considerations like "do our consumers like bringing a sweater in the middle of summer to visit the produce section"?

You find them unrefrigerated on the shop floor, but the supermarket - if their JIT delivery is efficient - are probably having them on the shop floor for less than a day. Do they refrigerate in transport, in the back-of-house?

In the UK the whole supermarket might be temperature controlled (cooled) where the domestic environment isn't.

Seems like it's probably pretty complex to work out

There's probably a mean indoor temperature above which refrigeration makes sense, for example.

I've worked in the produce section of a supermarket. We had a refrigerated stock room that was used for everything except bananas. I don't know what temperature it was kept at, but I believe it was somewhat warmer than the usual 5C refrigerator temperature. It could well have been the 10C minimum recommended by the article.

Don't supermarkets go through their produce really quickly so multi-day storage isn't what they're optimizing for?

Cucumbers are refrigerated in stores around here.

As a rule of thumb: don't store them more than a couple of days. Easier.

Like all things, it depends. It's not necessarily a myth, but rather it depends on a number of factors. I'll be storing my tomatoes on the counter (upside down) as well as my cukes. Just unfortunate that I'm the only one in my household that likes tomatoes so I end up with a lot of waste sometimes.

Round it up to most summer vegetables.

Keep in mind this is mostly a resource for farmers and grocers -- much less strange to imagine a cucumber that was stored at 5C for a day after picking, going to the farmers market, home with a shopper and then sitting on their counter for a few days. Interpreting it as direct advice for consumers can be a bit misleading, but there's still plenty to learn from it as a consumer.

In our house we store it in the fridge and cut off as much as needed, keeping the rest in the plastic wrap. This way I think they keep fine for up to a couple of weeks. At worst, the section nearest the cut will get a bit mushy and need to be sacrificed.

> Also that you should store things at home like they are in the store, and apples are never refrigerated at the store.

They are, it's just long before they're put out on display. That's how they manage to have fresh New York state apples in February.

They also pull out the oxygen: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/11/26/668256349/th...

> The perfect combination of temperature and gases, which differs for each variety, allows apples to stay fresh for longer after harvest than if they were simply refrigerated. Commercially refrigerating apples only preserves the fruit for a few months before it gets soft and dehydrated. And just keeping them in your home refrigerator? They'll likely only stay fresh for a few weeks.

> Also that you should store things at home like they are in the store, and apples are never refrigerated at the store.

I would suppose the grocer's tradeoff is slightly different than yours. For them, it ought to be about trading shelf-life extension against refrigeration costs. For me, I'd rather extend the shelf-life of the apple even if it costs more to refrigerate it than it would to buy a new one, because I dislike throwing out food. I even freeze some produce that is about to go bad if I don't have an immediate plan for it.

I suspect that is for farmers or grocers that want to store a harvest for extended periods of time, even into the spring after fall harvest. I guess some amount of mealiness is hard to avoid in that case but it would be mitigated in a controlled humidity and gas environment as recommended. If you do all of those things you can bring them to room temp and expect them to last a few days on your customer's counter.

> apples are never refrigerated at the store

Maybe this is for untreated apples? But still those values for apples looks surprisingly low.

Potaties are traditionally stored in a cool and dark cellar so yeah I doubt the kitchen countertop is optimal.

I love this for bread. I normally give a huge pack from Costco and remove two slices for my lunch every day. It acts a small ice-pack for the 20 minute trip to work for the rest of the sandwich bits and by the time I eat it for lunch it's perfectly thawed and not stale.

But bread (and most things) in the freezer can get freezer burn! Discovered it when I was finally desperate enough to use the spare frozen bread. Now I simply keep them on rotation, use the oldest one at any time.

> For instance bread stored in the fridge will go stale

Unless it's in an airtight container.

What? Unless vegetables are showing clear signs of decay (e.g. cucumber becomes yellow and soft) they are safe to eat for weeks after purchase. Many vegetables can be stored for many months if you manage temperature, light and humidity properly.

Back in the days, people would store vegetables in a cold basement for up to 1 year. Potatoes are stored dry and dark, carrots and cabbage are pulled straight out of the ground, not cleaned or divided roots/leaves, and are kept moist and dark (the old folks would stack up layers of wet moss and veggies), while garlic and onions are kept dry and dark and separate from the rest.

So all of EU, where for the center area 5C is recommended, and higher temperatures can be common?

My fridge is always 5C (siemens), old model (bosch) was 6C since otherwise back of was creating some ice. No issue with bacteria whatsoever. But we don't keep meat after expiration date (or just freeze it), cheese/diary are usually more than fine well after that, veggies and fruits don't rot in any unexpected manner.

Seems like more of a hassle than just chucking them in the fridge, but it might appeal to some. :)

Well, if she is doing it for some time by now, I would assume it is working :-)

Thank you!

wateriness is the wrong word then. cucumbers are a very watery fruit