‘Tis the season of over-catering, however I’ve been decided this 12 months to not let a lot go to waste. I’ve been extra cautious with portion sizes, conscious of what will get opened and when, and tried to maintain all the pieces saved optimally to make it final so long as attainable.
However, the reality of the matter is, regardless of my finest efforts, I can not prolong a meals’s shelf life by an excessive amount of with these strategies alone. No, I want some assist, and the most effective kitchen equipment manufacturers on the market appear to have made it their mission lately to make our kitchens extra sustainable on this means.
There are some brilliant bits of home tech out there, if only you know where to look and what they can actually do to help you. These five ideas not only aim to help you keep fresh produce fresh, but also give you the tools for preserving food before it passes its prime, so you can enjoy it for a much larger window of time.
1. Vacuum Sealers
Vacuum sealing is the MVP of extending the life of your leftovers, and it’s one of those pieces of kitchen kit that has so many more uses than just helping you not waste food. The form of a vacuum sealer can take many forms — from a budget-friendly John Lewis one that patrons appear to like to a top-of-the-range Bora one, which you’ll be able to even have constructed into your work floor for a cool, glossy design on your sustainable kitchen (although, they have a conveyable choice within the BORA QVac Move, too).
But, why does it work? “Vacuum sealing with the BORA QVac keeps fresh food edible for significantly longer: up to three times longer than with conventional storage without air extraction, which can actively help to prevent food waste,” Andy Cummings, BORA Head of Sales UK, tells me. “Mould and bacteria need oxygen to grow, so storing food without air helps to slow spoilage, therefore enabling the food to be kept for at least three times longer. It’s particularly good for things like berries, cheese, bread, or even if you want to batch cook food and store it in individual portions.”
“You can also store baked goods such as cakes and panettone in the vacuum-sealed container to prevent them from drying out. This allows it to be enjoyed for longer, and leftovers can be eaten instead of thrown away. Also, if you vacuum seal food into the bags for freezing, you do not get freezer burn, which is a massive plus,” Andy provides.
2. Jar Sterilizers
Making leftover fruit and vegetables into jams and preserves isn’t for the faint of heart. It requires a bit of skill, yes, but also the requirement to sterilize and seal the jars, too. If you’ve ever made jam before, you might be familiar with the oven method, however, brands such as Kilner don’t recommend it, for the reason that it can cause bacteria harboured in your oven to spoil your preserves. However, in the likes of the Bora X BO, jars can be sterilized in 10 minutes using the special “germ reduction” programme.
Back to vacuum sealing, Andy actually recommends using a vacuum sealer instead of the boiling method for your preserves. “Vacuum sealing the jam jars in the big QVac box instead of the historic hot-water-bath is much less hassle,” he says. “Plus, you can do this with any opened jars you store in your fridge such as pesto, chutney or pickles, which often get half used and then go mouldy before you have a chance to finish them. If you reseal them inside the big Tupperware container, they will stay edible for much longer.”
3. Climate Controlled Fridge Drawers
Your fridge might seem just like one entity of coldness, but actually, modern tech means that you have a little more control over just how chilled your fresh produce is. “One of the best ways to make food last longer is to invest in advanced refrigeration technology,” Tim Hutchinson, Divisional Manager at Liebherr UK, tells me. “Look to Liebherr’s BioFresh technology,” he provides, “innovation that helps keep food fresher for longer than conventional refrigeration alternatives.”
But what precisely does that imply? Well, it is the model’s means of organizing a fridge. For instance, storage for vegetable drawers in trendy fridges is normally set at 0°C, serving to to maintain contemporary greens, meat, and fish for longer than storing them in the primary a part of the fridge. However, we will go one step additional and discover that greens like excessive humidity, whereas meat likes drier storage to assist it last more. Fish storage in a BioFresh fridge is at low humidity and -2°C, whereas the fridge additionally has a HydroBreeze operate, which creates an icy chilly mist that helps hold fine-leafed greens crisp, identical to you’d see in a market.
“As different types of food have different storage requirements, BioFresh drawers can be adjusted to provide the optimum storage climate for different foods,” Tim says.
4. Steam Regeneration Settings
You’ll both end up in considered one of two camps: workforce leftovers, or workforce not. For some folks, leftovers are higher the following day anyway, whereas for others, their texture, consistency, and style are modified an excessive amount of by the passage of time to actually take into account protecting meals for the following meal.
What is perhaps the sport changer on this state of affairs? ‘Steam Regeneration’. It’s a operate you may discover on trendy types of oven, including steam ovens from AEG, Electrolux, Gaggenau, Miele and more, and it’s designed to reheat your leftovers without drying them out. That means a gentle, evenly-distributed heat, so you leftovers look and taste as good as new.