Peak Fresh Reusable Produce Bags - 10 Pack Eco-Friendly Mesh Bags for Fruits, Vegetables & Groceries - Perfect for Farmers Market, Grocery Shopping & Food Storage

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.