The cost of living crisis has families seeing their weekly grocery bills increase significantly over the last few months - and every euro counts when it comes to making your food last as long as possible.
Tessa Clarke from OLIO has some hacks that will help you reduce the amount of food waste in your household as well as helping the environment.
When it comes to saving money, making sure you aren't throwing out gone off food every week will make a massive difference.
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An easy way to give away food if you know you won't be able to eat it before it goes off is to give it away through the OLIO app.
If you are trying to keep your food from the supermarket last as long as possible to decrease your costs and reduce your food waste, follow these handy food hacks.
Tomatoes : Many people store tomatoes in the fridge but this actually makes them go softer faster. It's actually better to keep them in a bowl on the counter in your kitchen.
Bread : To make bread last longer, buy a whole loaf, slice it up and put the slices in the freezer. This way you can just take out slices when you need them and avoid bread going mouldy. You can also store a loaf in a reusable cotton bag in an airtight container.
Banana : Wrapping bananas in tinfoil is an easy and effective way to keep them fresh for longer.
Berries : Washing berries in a solution made of water and a dash of vinegar before patting them dry and storing them in the fridge will significantly increase their shelf life.
Honey : Honey is a condiment that doesn't go off easily however if left for a very long time it will crystallise. If this does happen, you don't need to buy more honey just put the jar into some warm water and the honey will loosen.
Dairy Products: The back of your fridge is the coldest part of the fridge so store your dairy products here. Milk could become frozen so make sure there is room for expansion in the carton.
Celery : Wrapping celery in tinfoil and storing it in the fridge is the easiest way to keep your celery fresh.
Lemons: Most people store lemons at room temperature which is fine but sealing them in a plastic bag and popping them in the fridge will help them last much longer
Avocado: Avocados are known for going off so quickly and especially when you only use half and go back the next day and the other half is gone brown it can be very frustrating. However, if you pop it into a lunch box with a slice of an onion it will prevent the avocado from going brown so quickly.
Cake : If you have left over cake that you are trying to keep fresh you can put a slice of bread on top of the cake - sounds strange but it works! The bread will dry out eventually but the cake will remain moist and fresh.
Potatoes: It's an easy mistake most of us make but storing potatoes with onion actually accelerates their sprouting so try to store them separately in a cool and dry place.
One of the best food hacks is forming an 'eat me' shelf in your fridge. If you know you have a number of items about to go off then you can simply put them in the shelf of the fridge and it will remind you to eat them in the next few days.
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