Fresh strawberries can go directly into the refrigerator, but will do just fine on the counter for a couple of days. Remove any bruised or otherwise marred berries and place the rest in a colander or open-weave basket to allow good airflow.
The Best Way to Store Strawberries If You're Eating Them Right Away: At Room Temperature. If you're planning to eat your strawberries right away, storing strawberries at room temperature on your kitchen counter is the best option — they'll lose a bit of luster and flavor in the fridge.
Because strawberries and other fresh berries tend to have mold spores on their surfaces, they spoil faster when left out at room temperature. Keeping them in the fridge slows down this process so you have more time to use them. It's the best option when you need to keep your strawberries for more than a day or so.
Outside of the fridge, they will only last 1-2 days. Strawberries can last easily 2 weeks and even a little longer depending on when they were picked. However, you have to take a couple of easy steps to make sure they stay fresh and don't turn moldy.
Place in air-tight glassware: Transfer unwashed strawberries into a glass food storage container or mason jar and make sure it's sealed tight. Paper towel method: Place a clean, dry paper towel in a container and put unwashed strawberries on top. Close the lid and place the container in the refrigerator.
Storing Method: Stored in an airtight glass jar.
Results: By the end of the week only a third of the strawberries showed any signs of spoilage. The airtight jar seemed to keep the berries much fresher than storing them on an uncovered sheet pan.
Arrange freshly picked strawberries in a single layer on a shallow plate or pie plate lined with paper towels. Cover or fit into a large plastic sealable bag and then seal the bag and refrigerate. Stored this way, strawberries should last at least five-seven days. The strawberries should stay dry and cold.
Why do berries go bad so fast? It comes down to moisture… and mold. Berries tend to be quite porous, water-rich and delicately skinned, meaning they soak up excess moisture in their environment very easily. They also pretty much all carry mold spores, which grow rapidly when moisture is plentiful.
Unwashed berries, like many kinds of fresh produce, can have dirt, bacteria, and pesticides living on the surface. So, in order to not ingest said dirt, bacteria, and pesticides, it's super important to wash them thoroughly before you eat them!
Just keep it in an airtight jar in your fridge. "If you put your fruit, like strawberries, in a glass jar in the refrigerator, they stay fresh for 2 to 3 weeks!" This method of storing food is actually pretty popular amongst the zero-waste community.
When strawberries develop brown spots, they are starting to go bad. Sunken and dark areas on your strawberries are a sign they are getting old. You can still eat them at this stage as long as they don't have any mold. A strawberry should be discarded and not eaten if it is soft and mushy with brown spots.
Though strawberries need the chill of the refrigerator for best keeping, let them come to room temperature before serving. Warmer temperatures allow our taste buds and nose sensors to take full advantage of strawberries' true essence.
Fresh, Ready-to-eat Blueberries
It's important to refrigerate fresh berries after a grocery delivery, trip to the store or visit to the u-pick farm. You can keep them in the original plastic clamshell or in a covered bowl or container.
Answer: Your strawberries should be fine. You can safely store whole, fresh fruits at room temperature, says the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Whole straberries will generally keep for one to days at normal room temperature.
If you want to extend the shelf life of your strawberries, you will need to transfer them to your refrigerator. The best way to do this is to store them in a single layer in an airtight container according to the following steps. 1. Wash strawberries only when you're ready to eat them.
My tests proved that the best way to store fresh strawberries to make them last longer was to place unwashed strawberries in a glass storage container with a tight fitting lid and refrigerate them.
Unwashed fresh berries (or any fresh produce) can have dirt, bacteria, or even tiny insects living on or in them, not to mention pesticide residue on the fruit's skin, which can lead to foodborne illness.
Fill a large bowl or sink with one part white vinegar and one part salt to 10 parts water. Soak strawberries for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse berries in plain water. Lay out berries to dry on paper towels or towels for at least 20 minutes, they need to be totally dry.
For whole berries: Freeze the berries in a single layer on a baking sheet to keep them from getting stuck together. Once they're solid, transfer the berries to a container, such as FreezerWare™, or a zip freezer bag such as Glad® Freezer Zipper Gallon Bags.
If you don't plan to eat your strawberries the day you bring them home, the best place for them is in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator. It helps to maintain humidity and keep the berries from losing moisture and becoming dry.
Don't crowd your berries when storing
Then cover the container with a loose-fitting lid to let excess moisture (a breeding ground for bacteria) escape. You don't want to use airtight containers here.
Refrigerate if not used right away.
Cold temperatures suppress the flavor of the berries so they will taste sweeter if you let them come to room temperature before eating. The optimum storage temperature for strawberries is 32⁰ to 36⁰F with humidity at 90 to 95 percent.
Quickly remove and discard any berries that are moldy or are touching moldy berries, wash the rest well, and then dry them before storing to prevent new mold. And if more than a quarter of the berries in your container are moldy, discard the whole batch.
One week: Mason Jar
This is the easiest option to store strawberries. Just remove unwashed strawberries from their original packaging and place them into a Mason jar with a tight-fitting lid. Be sure to remove any strawberries with visible damage or mold. Wash and hull when ready to use.
Store berries in paper towel-lined sealable container, with layers of paper towels between each layer of berries. Keep the lid slightly open to allow excess moisture to escape. Place in the refrigerator to store.