Fruits and Vegetables You Should Never Store Together (Unless You Want Them to Spoil Faster)

If your fruit bowl includes a bunch of grapes and some apples, you’re doing it wrong, the experts say…

Oil and water. Two constantly-squabbling siblings. A flaky croissant and your freshly-cleaned bed sheets.

Certain things are better kept at a distance, including certain fruits and vegetables you should never store together. Sure, it’s easy to toss your entire farmers market or supermarket haul into the same crisper drawer or two, it’s not your best strategy to extend the life of your ingredients. But since fruits and veggies aren’t exactly shouting at each other, for example, or crumbling into pieces atop your crisp white sheets, how do you know which fruits and vegetables you should never store together?

To help us all store in a savvier way and max out the lifespan of our produce investments, we asked our Test Kitchen experts and other culinary pros for their guidance about which fruits and veggies are friends—and which are freshness foes.

The Fruits and Vegetables You Should Never Store Together

Some fruits and vegetables need to be stored separately due to varying temperature requirements. For example, cucumbers last the longest when stored between 50 to 54 degrees F instead of the usual fridge temp of 35 to 40 degrees F, while tomatoes prefer room temp, and grapes thrive between 32 and 36 degrees F.

Other fruits and veggies are best at a distance so they don't transfer odors from one to another; onions and garlic, for instance, can overpower the taste or smell of apples, pears, carrots, celery, and others.

Those fruit and vegetable storage tips are much easier to assume than what Meggan Hill, executive chef and CEO of Culinary Hill deems is the “main rule” to produce storage success: “Separate high-ethylene producers from ethylene-sensitive fruits and vegetables,” she says. “It’s important to know which fruits and vegetables produce high or moderate amounts of natural ethylene gas and which are sensitive to it. This will allow you to maximize freshness and reduce spoilage.”

Ethylene is a gas that certain fruits and vegetables emit to cause them to ripen. Without ethylene, that under-ripe rock-hard avocado would remain that rock hard, rather than transforming into its luscious buttery, spreadable, or mashable consistency.

Since ethylene speeds up the ripening—and spoiling—process for certain fruits and vegetables, “when stored too close to each other, ethylene-rich produce can cause ethylene-sensitive produce to ripen too quickly and cause rapid deterioration,” Lauren Grant-Vose, founder of Zestful Kitchen adds.

For this reason, Chris Meyer, Dotdash Meredith Test Kitchen administrative assistant, recommends keeping ethylene-producers at least 6 to 8 inches away from the fruits and vegetables sensitive to ethylene gas.

Related: How to Freeze Vegetables From the Garden or Market

Ethylene-Producing Fruits and Vegetables

According to the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Center for Community Health, the following produce high amounts of natural ethylene gas.

“To be safe, just store the ethylene-producers away from other produce, by themselves, and not in sealed bags or containers,” Grant-Vose suggests.

• Apples

• Avocados

• Bananas

• Cantaloupe

• Kiwi

• Peaches

• Pears

• Peppers

• Tomatoes

“Celery, peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes also produce a moderate amount of ethylene,” Hill adds.

Meyer says that there are some storage containers and produce-saver sheets that can help absorb ethylene; try using these inside your crisper drawer if you have any of the above items in-stock.

Ethylene-Sensitive Fruits and Vegetables

On the flip side, these items are ones that UCSD says are sensitive to ethylene. Grant-Vose notes that circulation is key to extending the life of ethylene-sensitive items, so it is wise to remove the following in sealed containers or bags.

Some of the ethylene-producers noted above are also ethylene-sensitive, and we’ve noted those below in bold.

“If a fruit or veggie is both an ethylene-producer and ethylene-sensitive, store the produce in a single layer rather than stacked or piled into bowls,” Grant-Vose says. (This means that displaying a beautiful bowl of apples on your counter is not the wisest idea for maximum fruit lifespan.)

• Apples

• Asparagus

• Avocados

• Bananas

• Broccoli

• Cabbage

• Cauliflower

• Collard Greens

• Cucumber

• Eggplant

• Grapes

• Kiwi

• Lemons and Limes

• Lettuce

• Mangos

• Melons (cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew)

• Onions

• Pears

• Peppers

• Squash

• Stone Fruits (peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots, cherries)

• Sweet Potatoes

Fruits and Vegetables That Are Not Ethylene-Sensitive

While we’re continuing to learn more about the fruits and veggies that can play nicely together, the current scientific consensus is that the following items are not extremely ethylene-sensitive, so should be okay to store with other produce section selections.

• Blueberries

• Cherries

• Garlic

• Grapefruit

• Green Beans

• Oranges

• Pineapple

• Potatoes

• Raspberries

• Strawberries

• Tomatoes

7 Bonus Tips for How to Make Produce Last Longer

Now that you have our ultimate guide to the fruits and vegetables you should never store together, we couldn’t let our pro panel go without asking them to spill about other ways to slow spoilage and lengthen the life of your fresh garden goodies.

• Flip out. We swear by an old restaurant trick: FIFO, which stands for “first in, first out.” When you put something new in, whether it's produce or leftovers, place it closer to the back, and bring something older towards the front, Grant-Vose says. “Doing this allows you to keep an eye on your inventory and helps you keep track of what's fresh and what's a bit older and ready to be used.”

• Towel off. Paper towels are a wise, budget-friendly tool to help extend the life of many produce items. “Berries, lettuce greens, snap peas, and herbs can all benefit from a paper towel being placed in the storage container,” Grant-Vose says. “Replace the paper towel with a fresh one occasionally if needed.”

• Time the rinse cycle right. If you can wait, it’s best to wash fruits and vegetables right before you eat or serve them, Hill advises. When you get fruits and vegetables home from the market, dry off any moisture before storing them. “Moisture can contribute to spoilage and can encourage bacterial growth,” Hill says.

• Let ‘em breathe. Along with being dry, most produce benefits from circulating air, so store veggies in paper bags or bags with holes—not an airtight plastic bag, Hill suggests.

• Go whole. Instead of cutting, shredding, or slicing immediately after purchase or harvest, keep fruits, vegetables, and herbs whole for as long as possible, Grant-Vose says.

• Mind your onions. Even though both onions and potatoes should both be stored in a cool, dark place outside of the refrigerator, “do not store onions and potatoes together,” Hill warns “Onions release moisture which will lead to mushy potatoes with eyes or roots.”

• Trim the tops. When produce comes with green tops, such as carrots or beets, trim the tops immediately. (Don’t toss them, though! Blitz the leaves into beet or carrot top pesto.) If you leave the tops attached, they can drain moisture, resulting in veggies that are limp or dry.

The Bottom Line

Temperature, smell, and ethylene gas production levels (or sensitivities) can be your guide when considering which fruits and vegetables to store together.

“The easiest rule to follow is to just store like produce together,” Grant-Vose says. “Berries can be stored together, brassica vegetables can be stored together, leafy greens can be together, and most root vegetables (except potatoes) can go together.”

If you’d like to keep your fruits and vegetables beyond their usual best-by date, consider preservation. Check out our Test Kitchen’s canning basics to help you preserve produce for up to a year.

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