We compared plastic, paper and Eco Saint bags. Photos / Getty and Supplied
We compared plastic, paper and Eco Saint bags. Photos / Getty and Supplied
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It's a tough climate for fruit and veggies: the current wave of humidity is making it particularly hard to keep anything fresh for very long.
But do you really know the best method for storing your produce?
You're likely in one of two camps when it comes to fruit and veg in the fridge: The classic supermarket plastic bag, or a paper bag.
But there's a new option that just might trump both. Former Bachelorette Alysha Brown - the sweet Invercargill-born school teacher who competed alongside Matilda Rice for Art Green's affections - has created a cloth bag option called Eco Saint.
Twenty-nine-year-old Brown launched the reusable bags last month after deciding she'd had enough of plastic bags spoiling her fruit and veg, and wanting to offer something with less impact on the environment.
Alysha Brown, the founder of Eco Saint. Photo / Supplied
According to the Eco Saint website, the cotton bags, which range in price from $5 to $10, or $20 for all three sizes, "allow your produce to breathe, but they absorb any excess moisture that can be detrimental to freshness."
Over the course of a week we put the bags to the test to find out if they really are a better option for keeping produce fresh in the fridge.
Plastic: Plastic wasn't a great way to store apricots. On day three they were visibly wet and soft. By the end of the experiment they'd begun to rot.
Paper: The apricots in the paper bag got soft and mushy really quickly, though they did brown slower than in plastic.
Eco Saint: This was by far the best method for storing apricots. They were able to breathe and held their colour and firmness in the fridge for the entire week.
• The winner: Eco Saint bags
Cherry tomatoes
Tomatoes on day two, five and seven.
Plastic (Punnet): They seemed to keep fresh for a whole week in the fridge. None lost their firmness or freshness.
The original container was the best option to keep the cherry tomatoes fresh. They stayed firm, bright and juicy and were well protected by the plastic container.
Paper: After a couple of days I noticed one or two had lost their shape and firmness but they were still juicy and edible.
Eco Saint: A few of the tomatoes were shrivelled and had slight discolouration after one week. The fact that they were in a soft bag also meant they were prone to be squashed by other veggies being pulled in and out of the drawer throughout the week.
• The winner: Original plastic punnet
Courgettes
Corgettes on day two, day three and day seven.
Plastic: This eventually proved to be the sweaty option for these vegetables.
Paper: The paper bags were reasonably breathable to begin with. But by the end of the five days, these courgettes were the softest and had started to rot.
Eco Saint: The cloth bag seemed to stop the courgettes getting slimy and soft. But by the end of the experiment they didn't look much different to the paper-bagged veg in terms of visible degradation.
