Edit because there seems to be some confusion about this: this is mainly constructed as a resource for farmers, grocers, etc, who are trying to bring produce to consumers in a state that it will arrive in their home at a good quality. Their requirements for length of time in storage/transport are very different from most consumers, and the resources they can devote to maintaining an optimal temperature, humidity, gas environment for a given type of produce are much more extensive. That said, there's plenty to learn from it as a consumer with the right eye, e.g. about how the tissue damage due to too cold storage may differ from too hot, or the ethylene interactions from storing various things together.
All their examples of cucumber chilling damage are for cucumbers that were chilled and then warmed back to room temperature and held there for several days. This is an unusual thing to do; most people just leave them refrigerated until they eat them.
Keep in mind this is mostly a resource for farmers and grocers -- much less strange to imagine a cucumber that was stored at 5C for a day after picking, going to the farmers market, home with a shopper and then sitting on their counter for a few days. Interpreting it as direct advice for consumers can be a bit misleading, but there's still plenty to learn from it as a consumer.
In our house we store it in the fridge and cut off as much as needed, keeping the rest in the plastic wrap. This way I think they keep fine for up to a couple of weeks. At worst, the section nearest the cut will get a bit mushy and need to be sacrificed.
Huh, you made me realize that the plastic wraps for cucumbers have pretty much entirely disappeared here. I'm not really a fan for overuse of plastic packaging but I do wonder what effec it has on shelf life. Most produce does seem to not last as long as it used to but that could be due to many different factors (including bad memory).
Where is "here" for you? The advice in the linked article comes from UC Davis - and I bet California grows most of its own - whereas where I shop in the UK imports cucumbers from Spain and the Netherlands as well as some homegrown.
Huh. I’m shocked at the storage temps for apples. I always heard they go mealy in the fridge. Also that you should store things at home like they are in the store, and apples are never refrigerated at the store.
Lots of stuff that says 50-55 F which is unfortunate because most people don’t have any kind of storage at that temp.
The perfect combination of temperature and gases, which differs for each variety, allows apples to stay fresh for longer after harvest than if they were simply refrigerated. Commercially refrigerating apples only preserves the fruit for a few months before it gets soft and dehydrated. And just keeping them in your home refrigerator? They'll likely only stay fresh for a few weeks.
Also that you should store things at home like they are in the store, and apples are never refrigerated at the store.
I would suppose the grocer's tradeoff is slightly different than yours. For them, it ought to be about trading shelf-life extension against refrigeration costs. For me, I'd rather extend the shelf-life of the apple even if it costs more to refrigerate it than it would to buy a new one, because I dislike throwing out food. I even freeze some produce that is about to go bad if I don't have an immediate plan for it.
I suspect that is for farmers or grocers that want to store a harvest for extended periods of time, even into the spring after fall harvest. I guess some amount of mealiness is hard to avoid in that case but it would be mitigated in a controlled humidity and gas environment as recommended. If you do all of those things you can bring them to room temp and expect them to last a few days on your customer's counter.
I really disagree on potato. It goes soft fairly quickly in the room temperature but keeps for ages in the refrigerator. I eat a lot of potatoes and haven't noticed anything wrong with them after long periods of refrigerator storage.
Comments
Worth pointing to OP's primary source, which is great: https://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/produce-facts-sheets
Edit because there seems to be some confusion about this: this is mainly constructed as a resource for farmers, grocers, etc, who are trying to bring produce to consumers in a state that it will arrive in their home at a good quality. Their requirements for length of time in storage/transport are very different from most consumers, and the resources they can devote to maintaining an optimal temperature, humidity, gas environment for a given type of produce are much more extensive. That said, there's plenty to learn from it as a consumer with the right eye, e.g. about how the tissue damage due to too cold storage may differ from too hot, or the ethylene interactions from storing various things together.
All their examples of cucumber chilling damage are for cucumbers that were chilled and then warmed back to room temperature and held there for several days. This is an unusual thing to do; most people just leave them refrigerated until they eat them.
Keep in mind this is mostly a resource for farmers and grocers -- much less strange to imagine a cucumber that was stored at 5C for a day after picking, going to the farmers market, home with a shopper and then sitting on their counter for a few days. Interpreting it as direct advice for consumers can be a bit misleading, but there's still plenty to learn from it as a consumer.
In our house we store it in the fridge and cut off as much as needed, keeping the rest in the plastic wrap. This way I think they keep fine for up to a couple of weeks. At worst, the section nearest the cut will get a bit mushy and need to be sacrificed.
Huh, you made me realize that the plastic wraps for cucumbers have pretty much entirely disappeared here. I'm not really a fan for overuse of plastic packaging but I do wonder what effec it has on shelf life. Most produce does seem to not last as long as it used to but that could be due to many different factors (including bad memory).
Where is "here" for you? The advice in the linked article comes from UC Davis - and I bet California grows most of its own - whereas where I shop in the UK imports cucumbers from Spain and the Netherlands as well as some homegrown.
Huh. I’m shocked at the storage temps for apples. I always heard they go mealy in the fridge. Also that you should store things at home like they are in the store, and apples are never refrigerated at the store.
Lots of stuff that says 50-55 F which is unfortunate because most people don’t have any kind of storage at that temp.
They are, it's just long before they're put out on display. That's how they manage to have fresh New York state apples in February.
They also pull out the oxygen: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/11/26/668256349/th...
I would suppose the grocer's tradeoff is slightly different than yours. For them, it ought to be about trading shelf-life extension against refrigeration costs. For me, I'd rather extend the shelf-life of the apple even if it costs more to refrigerate it than it would to buy a new one, because I dislike throwing out food. I even freeze some produce that is about to go bad if I don't have an immediate plan for it.
I suspect that is for farmers or grocers that want to store a harvest for extended periods of time, even into the spring after fall harvest. I guess some amount of mealiness is hard to avoid in that case but it would be mitigated in a controlled humidity and gas environment as recommended. If you do all of those things you can bring them to room temp and expect them to last a few days on your customer's counter.
Maybe this is for untreated apples? But still those values for apples looks surprisingly low.
Not sure why, but I feel happy that "Fancy Cucumber" is a formal definition.
I really disagree on potato. It goes soft fairly quickly in the room temperature but keeps for ages in the refrigerator. I eat a lot of potatoes and haven't noticed anything wrong with them after long periods of refrigerator storage.
Potaties are traditionally stored in a cool and dark cellar so yeah I doubt the kitchen countertop is optimal.
Submitted here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40704785