Keep potatoes away from this one vegetable to keep them fresher for longer
The potato is a versatile ingredient and a staple in kitchens across the country. It can be turned into mash, chips and roasties and accompanies so many meals perfectly - but it's also the most wasted food item in the UK.
Every day, 5.8 million fresh potatoes are thrown away by UK homes, according to UK Harvest. And that's mainly because when they start to sprout we tend to throw them in the bin.
Proper storage of the tattie is essential if we want them to stay fresher for longer. A food expert recently shared the best place to keep your potatoes and it wasn't in the cupboard.
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In fact, Seasonal Spuds expert Luke Willcox suggested that to reduce food waste, spuds should be kept chilled in the fridge, reported the Express. That's contrary to the old belief that potatoes thrive best in a cool, dry place away from refrigeration, it appears they actually stay fresher for longer when stored at temperatures under five degrees.
But whether you choose to store them in the fridge or in a dark cupboard, one vegetable you need to keep them away from is the onion. Because they too are usually stored in a cool, dark place, onions and potatoes can often be found together in the kitchen.
But Anna Ziata, a chef and cooking teacher, has explained why these two vegetables need to be kept well apart.
On the Martha Stewart website she said: "Potatoes should be stored away from onions, which give off ethylene. Ethylene can encourage sprouting in potatoes."
And she added: "Storing them together can cause your potatoes to take on the flavours of onions, which may not be desirable."
Ethylene is a gas that is released by some fruits and vegetables and some are more sensitive to it than others. Onions are super-Ethylene producers and can cause the potatoes to ripen before their time.
Once a potato has started sprouting, it can still be eaten if it's still firm and has relatively small sprouts. But at this stage they have a high concentration of glycoalkaloids which can make them taste bitter and unpleasant.
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