Food storage experts are warning home cooks against a common kitchen mistake that could be ruining the flavour and texture of popular salad ingredients. Most people assume it is perfectly normal to store every salad ingredient in the fridge, but experts say refrigerating certain items can actually do more harm than good.
Tomatoes
According to food scientists, tomatoes lose both their flavour and texture when kept in the fridge. The natural acids and sugars begin to break down in cold conditions, causing a notable change in taste. The cell structure turns soft and mushy, which is far from ideal for sandwiches. Keep tomatoes on your worktop alongside other fruits instead.
The BBC Good Food guide explains: "Many people pop their tomatoes straight into the fridge, but this is a mistake if you want to enjoy their best flavour. Chilling tomatoes mutes their taste and can degrade their texture, leaving them mealy rather than juicy. Unless your tomatoes are very ripe and you won't be eating them for a couple of days, they are best stored at room temperature. If you do need to keep ripe tomatoes in the fridge, put them in a perforated bag, but take them out and let them come to room temperature for about 30 minutes before eating to help revive their flavour."
If you do not use an entire tin of tomatoes in one go, decant the remaining contents into a non-metal, airtight container and refrigerate. They will keep for approximately two days.
Cucumbers
Dr Chris Smith explained that refrigerating cucumbers poses problems: "Cucumbers, like many fruits, have evolved to grow, mature and ripen in warm temperatures. Fridges are below four degrees celsius, and the rationale for having things at that temperature is that it suppresses the growth of fungi and bacteria. Nevertheless, storing the fruit in cold conditions can not only impede the ripening process but also trigger 'cold injury'."
Dr Smith compared placing a cucumber in a cool box to attempting to cultivate one during winter: "It doesn't like it. The cells don't like it, the metabolism of the cucumber goes off kilter, the ripening process is thwarted, and it produces chemicals that might not taste as nice and tissues that might not taste as nice."
Onions
Stored in a cupboard or at a cool room temperature, onions can remain fresh for up to two months. They should be kept in a cool, dark, dry location. Spring onions, however, can be refrigerated for up to a week. Only spring onions are suitable for fridge storage. Brown, red and white onions are best kept in a cool, dry, dark spot, preferably in a cloth bag.
