We’ll take you through the latest advice on what to do with your food and its packaging while we’re on coronavirus confinement, and show you how to get the most from your food by storing it safely and efficiently.

How to keep your food fresher for longer

It’s sensible right now to limit your contact with other people, so reducing the number of trips you make to the supermarket is something we should all be trying to do. Online deliveries are a great way to do this, but we know that at this time it can be virtually impossible to get a delivery slot. One way to reduce the number of shopping trips you need is to make the food you do buy last for longer. Here are a few tips on how to make your fresh and frozen food last for as long as possible.

Store your food at the correct temperature

If you want your food to last as long as possible, you need to store it at the right temperature. That’s between 0°C and 5°C in your fridge, or between -18°C and -20°C in your freezer.

Don’t put hot food in your fridge or freezer

Regardless of whether leftovers are going in the fridge or the freezer, you should always let them cool to room temperature before you put them in. Otherwise, the warmth of your recently cooked food will send the temperature in your fridge and freezer skyrocketing. Not only will that reduce the freshness of other food in the fridge, which needs to be kept at a stable temperature, but it will also force your fridge freezer to work harder to cool down, pushing up your energy bills.

Use super cool and fast-freeze functions

Most modern fridge freezers have supercool or superfreeze settings. Although using these regularly will send your energy bills soaring, you could consider using them each time you load up your fridge or freezer with a new shop. They will get your food to the correct temperature much more quickly, meaning that it will stay fresher for longer.

Store foods on the correct shelves

As a general rule, the higher the shelf, the higher the temperature will be. It’s not a bad thing; if you know this you can use it to your advantage.

Raw meat, fish and seafood should be kept between 0°C and 3°C in order to lock in freshness and prevent harmful bacteria from tucking in. This means you should keep them on the bottom shelf or, if your fridge has one, a chill compartment that’s specially designed for this purpose.

Butter and cheese are less perishable, so they’re best kept near the top of your fridge where it’s warmer. Condiments are also a good bet for the higher shelves.

Middle shelves are good for leftovers, cooked meats, pizza and any fruit.