Food poisoning: Expert gives advice on safe food storage
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As the cost of living increases, many Britons are looking for more ways to save money. Ben Ebbrell, chef and co-founder of YouTube’s SORTEDfood, says one major way to do this is by reducing food waste in the home, and being savvy about your spending while shopping.
Onions are a staple in many UK homes, yet if stored incorrectly they can end up in the bin instead of adding flavour to a dish.
Research conducted by experts from SORTEDfood found that 70 percent of consumers feel their large food shops don’t stretch as far as they’d hoped.
Speaking to Express.co.uk, Ben said: “Storage is important as the vast majority of food waste in the UK happens in the home. Storage rotation is also super important.”
He added: “Nobody tracks how much food, and therefore money, we throw away.
“It all adds up… yet nobody actually does add it up.”
Ben explained there are two simple ways you can increase the shelf-life of your onions.
He said: “One really easy hack is to store your onions in the fridge – however, some people prefer not to as they can impart an onion odour to other food in the fridge that may be uncovered.
“In this case, a cool dry cupboard works just fine.”
Even in these ideal conditions, however, onions may start to sprout.
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Onions are still fine to use if they have sprouted a little, but be sure to use the sprouting ones first.
Alternatively, if you’re willing to spend just a little extra time chopping some onions, you could extend their shelf life even further and save some money in the process.
Ben explained: “If you have half an hour spare and want to save money, buy loads of onions, and peel and dice them.
“Bigger bags at a supermarket or market will work out cheaper. 90 percent of the time I use onion when it’s diced and gets sweated down in a pan as step number one anyway.
“Freeze the chopped onion in sandwich bags or Tupperware, and then cook them straight from frozen.
“In fact, defrosting in the pan means they break down quicker when cooking.”
Experts from Stop Food Waste revealed that onions chopped and stored in the freezer can last up to six months.
They added: “Sliced or chopped, raw onions freeze well so there’s no need for blanching.
“You will find that it is super handy to have a bag of diced onions on standby in your freezer.
“Scoop as much as you require and cook from frozen for speedy midweek meals.”
SORTEDfood is launching a new meal planning tool as a simple solution to help Brits cut their grocery spending.
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