12 Foods You Should Never Store Together to Ensure Maximum Freshness

Ingredients that cook up nicely together shouldn’t always be stored together. For food safety reasons, odor concerns, and freshness, several common supermarket staples should have distinct places in the refrigerator to keep them at their best. 

Just like a seating chart at any good event, your fridge and counter space should be curated so everyone gets along, feels and looks their best, and can be enjoyed at their prime. Fridgescaping may be a bit excessive, but being thoughtful about where raw ingredients are placed can help you make the most of your grocery haul (and budget), and ensure that everything in the fridge is at its prime. 

Produce-wise, you’ll always want to separate fruits that are still ripening and giving off ethylene gas, from other produce, as the scentless, invisible natural gas can spoil other fruit. Apples and bananas, for example, continue ripening after they’re picked, and the natural gas they produce while ripening in the fridge or on the countertop can be detrimental to each other or other types of produce. This is why a distinct banana rack or banana area of your kitchen may be a wise real estate decision for all of your groceries. 

Here are the ingredients to never store together: 

Raw Meat and Produce

For food safety reasons, any type of raw meat, including poultry and fish, shouldn’t be stored with fresh produce. Meat that isn’t cooked to a safe temperature could potentially harbor foodborne illness, and if it’s touching produce that you consume raw, that illness-causing bacteria could spread, even if you wash the produce. Keep raw meat in its packaging on a fridge shelf, wrapped in an extra plastic bag if you’re worried about leakage. 

Apples and Onions

Ever bite into an apple that tastes a little, well, onion-y? It was probably stored too close to the alliums. Apples and pears stored with onions or other alliums, like garlic or leeks, can absorb their flavor, which is then impossible to get rid of. Keep your apples and onions separate, but if it’s too late for your apples, consider whipping up some Caramelized Apple, Onion and Sausage Pasta to take advantage of the flavor crossover.   

Carrots and Apples

Carrots are also notorious for absorbing odors, so it’s ideal to store them away from ethylene-producing produce, like apples, which are famous for offering their flavor to nearby carrots. Store carrots in the fridge with other root vegetables, like beets or sweet potatoes, and away from your apples, which should be in a separate produce drawer.

Figs and Cabbage 

Figs are fickle and have a short shelf life in the fridge, thanks to their ethelayne, which is not ideal for cruciferous vegetables, like cabbage. Cabbage should ideally be stored in the fridge, wrapped in plastic to help keep the moisture in, especially once the head of cabbage is cut. Figs are ideally stored on a shallow plate so they can breathe (releasing ethylene), and spaced out away from other produce that is sensitive to the gas. 

Mushrooms and Garlic

Though mushrooms and garlic can taste delicious together when cooked, it’s generally a good idea to keep them apart from each other in the fridge. As a fungus, mushrooms can be a flavor and odor sponge, and keeping them near garlic can give them an off scent or taste. Mushrooms shouldn’t be in the crisper drawer to begin with, as moisture encourages spoilage and mold. Keep them in a breathable container, like a paper bag, in the main part of the fridge. 

Bananas and Avocado

Keep bananas and avocado away from each other, unless you’re trying to speed up the ripening process of avocado. Then, keeping it in a bag with a banana or apple, that is, a fruit producing ethylene, can naturally help the avocado ripen faster. Fruit is amazing! This trick won’t work for everything, but avocado’s protective outer peel ensures it won’t absorb any banana or apple flavor.