Potatoes are handy to have stored in your kitchen in late winter to make hearty recipes to keep you warm, like stews or soups, but it can be annoying if spuds spoil before their time.
It may seem obvious to all your vegetables stored in the same place in the kitchen, but certain produce will begin to rot quickly if kept together in the same space.
Alice Osborne, an expert from Cook’n, has shared that some of the worst vegetables to store near potatoes are onions and garlic.
She said: “Avoid storing onions with potatoes. Storing onions and potatoes together hastens the ripening process of the potatoes, leading them to grow eyes and sometimes roots. This goes for garlic, as well. Keep it away from your potatoes.”
Onions release a natural gas called ethylene, a plant hormone that causes produce to ripen and become more flavourful over time.
If too much ethylene is released in a closed space it can cause all the vegetables or fruits to spoil quickly before their time, and potatoes tend to be highly sensitive to ethylene gas.
Potatoes also contain lots of moisture which can cause both garlic and onions to begin turning mouldy if stored near them.
Instead, potatoes are best stored away from garlic and onions at room temperature in a dark place in the kitchen.
It is best not to leave potatoes on your kitchen countertop as they can begin to produce a toxic compound called solanine when exposed to light, which should not be ingested.
Light will cause potatoes to begin sprouting, have a horrible bitter taste and even cause them to turn green.
Potatoes should also not be refrigerated, as the cold temperature turns the starches into sugar, which will significantly shorten their shelf life and cause them to turn mushy and rotten.
Storing potatoes in the fridge can also produce a high amount of acrylamide, a chemical compound which can increase the risk of cancer.
The best place to keep potatoes tends to be a cupboard, drawer or even inside a pantry if you have one in your kitchen.
Once you have found a good place to store potatoes, it is important to keep them in a container with plenty of ventilation, as more air in the space will keep your vegetables dry.
Potatoes release moisture, which can cause them to become mouldy and begin sprouting if they are not stored properly.
Keep potatoes in a basket, paper bag, mesh bag or in a container that does not have a lid to help make them last longer.
If you store potatoes somewhere cool, dark, airy and far away from onions then your spuds should keep fresh for up to six months than they normally would last.
