How to Store Fresh Fruit So It Lasts Longer (Without Losing Flavour)

Fruit that still needs to ripen — mangoes, bananas, papaya, pears and most stone fruit — does best at room temperature, out of direct sunlight, until it softens and smells sweet. Refrigerating these before they're ripe can stall them and dull their flavour.

Once they reach the ripeness you want, you can move them to the fridge to hold them for a day or two — just bring them back to room temperature before eating for the fullest taste.

Already-ripe and non-ripening fruit — berries, grapes, cherries and citrus — keeps best cold. Store berries dry and unwashed, washing only just before you eat them, since surface moisture speeds up spoilage.

Ethylene is a natural ripening gas that some fruits (notably bananas and apples) give off. Keep high-ethylene fruit away from delicate produce you don't want to ripen faster — or use it deliberately, popping an unripe mango in a paper bag with a banana to speed things along.

Because farm-direct fruit arrives close to harvest, you have more good days to enjoy it — but it's also living fruit, not warehouse-stabilised. Sort it on arrival, let what needs ripening sit out, refrigerate the rest, and eat the ripest first.