Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Clearly Fresh Bags - helping produce last longer

Recently, I was contacted about trying out Clearly Fresh Bags. Clearly Fresh Bags are designed to help keep you fresh fruits and vegetables fresh longer. They use BreatheWay technology which allows fresh produce to breathe naturally and last longer. The technology allows fruits and vegetables to create their own ideal environment within the bag, naturally slowing the ripening and allowing them to stay fresh longer. You can read more about the technology here.

At my house, the biggest challenge that we have is eating bananas before they get overripe and brown, so of course, this is the product that I decided to test the aging on.

When the bags arrived, I had already purchased bananas and decided that I would use them to check out the bags. The pictures below show that we started with bananas that were already pretty ripe, but still the results were great. I decided that I needed a control. So, I placed all but one banana inside the bag and pushed out the air. I set them next to each other on the counter to ensure that they had a common environment. Each day, I opened the bag, took out one banana and then resealed it. After 6 days, I had consumed all but one of the bananas in the bag and ate the one that was not stored in the bag (my control). Despite my normal banana a day habit, I left the last banana sitting to see how long it would stay fresh. After 10 days, I decided to end the experiment and eat the banana. It was still in great shape and not overripe, although the flesh was a little soft, but not mushy.
Day 1:

Day 1:

6 days later:

6 days later:

10 days later:

Here is a second set of bananas, just to show that it wasn't a fluke. This is day 10:

This is day 11:

This is my third bunch of bananas through the bag, and likely the last - I think I will go to a new bag for the next bunch. If you are using the bags for whole, dry produce, you can reuse them a couple of times. For rinsed or cut produce, I'm guessing that you wouldn't be able to use it more than the one time. You can not wash the bags though, as it would ruin the BreatheWay membrane.

My conclusion is that these bags work. They are also useable for other produce, like apples, broccoli, lettuce, berries, mangoes, etc. I didn't test them on those items, because I don't generally have issues storing those items. Although, it could come in handy when I do purchase fresh produce for recipes at the end of the week - to ensure that they are as fresh as can be when I get a week removed from shopping.

You can purchase them direct from www.clearlyfreshbags.com the package of 10 1-gallon size bags sell for $3.99 / pack.

These bags work for me!


No compensation was received for this post. A package of Clearly Fresh Bags was provided, so that I could try them out and share my experience. All opinions expressed are my own.

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