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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
If you're tired spoiled food being tossed into the compost, produce bags -- marketed as fountains of youth for your salad staples -- might be a worthwhile consideration. Reusable produce bags are very easy to find and if they actually work, they can save you quite a bit of money in the long run.
To find out, I put three types to the test, including the free compostable bags available at my grocery store, Thrive Market's mesh bags and Ambrosia's chic linen produce bags.
For the test, I used 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.
Here's how long the produce bags kept my food fresh, and which performed the best.
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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
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