Berries are a staple fruit in many diets because they are packed with vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, as well as being a great source of antioxidants that help protect your cells and can even reduce the risk of disease.
However, berries are also notorious for going mouldy within just a few days of getting them home from the supermarket - meaning you often have to either eat them all in one sitting or chuck them away without finishing them.
But it turns out there is actually an easy hack you can do when picking out the punnet of berries you want to buy that could help you secure the freshest blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries on offer.
A savvy shopper named Meredith shared the hack on her TikTok account, @naptown_thrifts, where she said that if you flip the punnet of berries upside down, you can tell how fresh the produce is by looking at whether or not the berries stick to the bottom of the plastic tub.
Most punnets of berries will have an absorbent pad at the bottom, and if fruit sticks to it when it's been flipped upside down, it's reportedly a sign that the berries have already started to decay - so you should choose another carton.
The pad contains clay and minerals and is designed to help cut domestic food waste, as it helps to absorb ethylene, the ripening hormone that causes fruit to turn mouldy.
So, you want to pick a punnet of berries that don't stick to the pad, as this will mean the pad hasn't absorbed much ethylene yet - meaning your berries haven't started to break down.
In her video, Meredith explained: "Whenever my husband buys berries, they last so much longer and taste so much better than the ones I buy. I finally found out this secret is that he flips them over and buys whichever ones don't stick to the bottom of the carton."
Commenters on the video were baffled by the hack, with many saying they couldn't believe they'd been buying berries for so long without knowing the easy trick.
One person said: "What? Why is this awesome?"
While another added: "Thanks for the tip! I also put them in jars now to last longer."
And a third wrote: "That's a great tip!"
Others also shared their own suggestions for picking fresh berries and making them last longer, including smelling them to make sure they're "sweet" enough, and even washing them in vinegar to remove any mould that's already forming.
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