What Is the Best Way to Store Vegetables in the Refrigerator?

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective of this experiment is to find out which type of container works the best for storing vegetables in the refrigerator. Methods/Materials Materials # 3 plastic containers without lids(control) 3 Tupperware containers (same size) 3 porcelain bowls with covers (same size) 3 plastic bags (same size) a roll of Saran Wrap refrigerator romaine lettuce and cauliflower 1) Cut the vegetables and place a certain amount of vegetable determined by weight into each of the containers. 2) Place all of the above in a refrigerator. Observe them once every 3 days and record in a notebook. 3) Determine the freshness of the vegetable by the designated #number# values. 4) After about 19 days I took the #vegetable scores# and analyzed them using mathematical formulas. Results Both types of vegetables had about the same results. The porcelain bowls kept the vegetables fresh the longest. The order of the vegetable freshness of the containers from the freshest to the least fresh was porcelain bowls, Tupperware containers, Ziplock bags, Saran Wrap, and the control(plastic cups). Overall, the cauliflower stayed fresher longer than the Romaine lettuce. Conclusions/Discussion The porcelain bowls kept the vegetables fresh the longest. The control was the worst. If I had to repeat this experiment, I would not use porcelain bowls. I might try Pyrex containers instead, because they are see#through, like all the other containers I used. If I don#t need to open the lid, new air cannot enter to accelerate the process of drying vegetables, so the vegetables that I put in the containers might stay fresh longer.

Competition history

• CSEF 2002 Materials Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1137

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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