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If your produce is spoiling faster than you can eat it, you may want to try storing it differently. Tharon Green/Anna Gragert/CNET
There's nothing quite like the disappointment that comes with purchasing fresh produce only to find that it's spoiled before you could eat it. Tired of having to compost my fruit, veggies and greens instead of enjoying them, I put three different produce storage bags to the test: the free compostable bags available at my local grocery store, Thrive Market's mesh bags and Ambrosia's linen produce bags.
For my test subjects, I chose red bell peppers and romaine lettuce, which I stored in these bags inside my refrigerator's produce drawer. I did so for two weeks, which the USDA's FoodKeeper app says is the consumption limit for both peppers and lettuce if they're refrigerated after purchasing.
This is how my experiment went, and which storage bag kept my produce the freshest.
Day 1: Starting off fresh
I purchased my romaine lettuce and red bell peppers from my local Trader Joe's. While there, I picked up the 100% vegetable starch-based compostable produce bags available for free in the produce section.
What the produce looked like on the day of purchase, and all the different produce bags used. Anna Gragert/CNET
I washed all the produce, let it air dry and stored each in its respective bag. The Ambrosia linen produce bags for both leafy greens and vegetables state that the produce should be wet and that the bags should remain moist, so I followed these instructions. Then, I placed them all in the same produce drawer in my refrigerator.
The produce bags inside my fridge's produce drawer. Anna Gragert/CNET
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