Peak Fresh Re-Usable Produce Bags, Set of 10

Keeps food nice and fresh

These bags are great! My produce lasts at least two weeks and sometimes up to a month longer. The trick is to wrap the bag around the produce as tightly as possible to let out all the air. Also, the produce needs to be very dry so as not to spoil- moisture and air are the two enemies here. To keep them dry, I do not wash the produce until I am going to use them; however, if they are wet from the sprayer at the market, I dry them first as well as possible and then wrap the produce in a paper towel before putting them in a bag, then I discard the paper towel the next day and wrap the vegetables with another one if needed to change again daily until they are dry. I also check all the produce in their bags daily (just when I am hunting for food for dinner) to make sure that no produce is "weeping" (releasing liquid) in which case a commence with paper towel therapy (I do have one friend who puts a paper towel in the bottom of every bag that she changes daily and swears by this). The bags also seem to work better when they are fuller (maybe because of less air) so I pack the produce in when I can even combining some odd bedfellows such as celery and carrots because they both need the larger bag. I find that the bags are lasting with daily use about 6-8 months. After that, they tend to get dry and brittle and harder to clean. I don't have a schedule for throwing them out- they just seem to tell me when they have given me all they have to offer (I actually don't throw them out at that point, I wrap my child's lunch in them and he passes them on to the world in some way I would rather not be privy to). I try to wash the bags as little as possible- after the vegetables they have cared for are gone and just turn the bag inside out and air it out overnight before using again (this time using them inside out from the time before). If the bags need to be washed (if they have produce goo on them), I wash them in tepid water only (no soap, no hot water), towel them off, and then let them air dry overnight. I am finding that there are some vegetables/fruits that do better on the counter without these bags or refrigeration. Tomatoes for sure but I am wondering about mangoes and stone fruits. Results on fruit experiments are not yet ready for publication. I am also wondering if I would have better luck putting mushrooms in a brown paper bag as the chefs would direct you. Mushrooms never stay in our house long so I haven't been able to set up the lab for this yet.I store these bags in the cloth bags that I take to the supermarket (our county does not offer plastic bags at store checkout stands although they still offer clear plastic bags in the produce section). I just put my produce directly into these bags while I shop. That helps my karma quotient because I am easing up on the environment and also makes it easier at home since they are already wrapped and ready to place right in the refrigerator. (Good deeds are always rewarded twice- even if you don't believe this, please teach this to your kids with as straight a face as possible.)For a while this was my go-to hostess gift but I found that a lot of people are not ready to commit to them and just use them once (or I find the unopened box stashed in their coat closet). I have gotten a few family members hooked and they probably would not feed me if I arrived at their houses without a fresh box for them. Which brings me to my last point: I can not find these in my local stores (that includes the more progressive ones) and this is the only brand that I would trust enough to purchase. I started out with another brand (that is often advertised on TV- a woman's first and last name- that's all I am going to say) and I found that the quality of those can vary radically from box to box, sometimes they are so poorly made that they tear apart when you try to open them. Peakfresh bags are consistently of the highest quality. So take the time to use them properly and enjoy at least two more weeks of fresh produce from your fridge.

was not that impressed

Since mine is a two-person household, I used to throw out a bit of the raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, asparagus, lettuce that we buy in large quantities at Costco. Even so, we saved money because the Costco prices are so good. With Peak Fresh bags, even that wastage is no more: I can keep produce refrigerated for relatively long periods without significant deterioration.Peak Fresh instructions recommend washing produce before enclosing it in these bags. I don’t do this because it is impossible dry the produce properly for storage.Even the water vapor given off by the produce itself can promote mold or bacterial growth because it condenses when enclosed in plastic bags. So I use paper towels to absorb any condensed liquid. For raspberries or blueberries, I replace the absorbent liner in the boxes with paper towels and put the whole box of fruit in Peak Fresh bags. Strawberries come in a box too big to fit in a bag; I simply divide these into several bags, each with a paper towel lining. I even wrap lettuce, herbs, asparagus and other veggies in paper towels.Tomatoes don't go in the refrigerator because they lose their flavor when refrigerated. Before bagging them, I remove any stems because these mold very quickly; I don’t use paper towels with these.Tender herbs such as parsley and cilantro get special treatment. I leave these in bunches, cut a bit off the ends of the stems, and keep these little ‘bouquets’ with their stems immersed in a jar of water. Enclosing the jar in a Peak Fresh bag ensures that freshness for much longer than usual. This is especially effective with cilantro that spoils within days otherwise.Since the fruits and vegetables I buy at Costco are so fresh that they usually last longer than stuff from the super market. With supermarket produce, I had slimy asparagus tips and spoiling raspberries within two days of purchase; stored in Peak Fresh bags, this easily perishable produce stays fresh for couple of weeks!!I don't know why I'm such a slow learner! I’ve been a big advocate of Peak Fresh Bags, but I only recently thought to try them for cut avocados. The other day, I put a Hass avocado in one of those bags, and the cut surfaces didn't turn brown over the course of a couple of days.

My brother and I decided to try 2 different brands of these bags. He went with the Debbie Meyer and I tried these. (Ok, so he makes a lot more $ than I do!!!). We started on the same day with the same fruit and produce in them and kept monitoring to see which one worked best. They are still both going strong and neither he or I have experienced any spoiled fruit or veggies in almost 2 months. They work so well, we decided to share our quantities with one another just for the bag color difference. We will both purchase THIS product in the future in various sizes. No need to pay more. One clue: trick to keeping condensation from forming inside bag (which rots the food) is to place a few crumpled up paper towels in the bag with the food. Also, I don't close the bag up real tight, but rather scrunch the top together but put it loosely in the frig or on the counter. This way no moisture builds up inside the bag from the gases being released from the food and I don't have to keep wiping the 'wet' from the inside of the bag.Edit: Nov 2, '09-it has been several months since original purchase of this product and I have finally thrown out the original few bags I used at the onset. Not because they are no longer working effectively, but they have become a bit ratty looking from all the washing, rinsing and re-use. If all the bags in this small box last this long, purchasing this product once/year with just 10 bags is a dream come true. (thinking of giving brother some more for Christmas (giggle)- he'll be set for life! ;)