How long does food actually stay fresh in your fridge? It can get frustrating when your produce only lasts a couple days, or things in your fridge starts to pick up flavors from other items in the refrigerator. For me, the biggest frustration is celery that goes from crisp and delicious to limp and gross in a couple days. When I was at IHHS last month, I met BerryBreeze and they sent me home with their small unit and promised it would change how we buy groceries.
The BerryBreeze is a small battery operated device that “sanitizes the air in your refrigerator with activated oxygen (O3), a powerful natural cleansing agent that reacts with surface molecules on mold, yeast, and fungus. The result is a clean environment that preserves the nutritional value of your fruits, vegetables and other foods while postponing spoilage and decay”. The ladies I met with swore that if I just placed the BerryBreeze in my fridge I would notice a difference within a week.
Setting up your BerryBreeze is extremely easy. The top and bottom come apart and you load it with four D cell batteries. So far, that may be the only complaint I have about the BerryBreeze is the amount of batteries used. But fresh batteries should last three to four months or longer, all the while keeping your food fresh. Once the batteries are in the unit, simply click the top back on top and the green light will show up. Place it in the middle of your fridge on the top shelf and in about 8 hours your will have a completely sanitized refrigerator.
Our refrigerator is a lot like everyone else’s – organized chaos. A mix of left overs, fresh meat, dairy and of course fresh produce. I placed the BerryBreeze as directed and waited – for what? I wasn’t sure at first. But in a couple days I found that our home bottled water didn’t have any residual tastes from the refrigerator. And our produce – salad greens lasted an extra week, the zucchini has been in the crisper without aging for three weeks and that celery is over a week old and still crisp. I’m amazed at the change in how much longer everything is lasting in the fridge.
The BerryBreeze is great for sanitizing your refrigerator, but also can help you save money as well. The unit itself is around $50, but by reducing mold and bacteria in your fridge it helps prolong the life of your food in the fridge. They say the BerryBreeze can help “save you up to $2200 per year by avoiding spoilage of food in your fridge. Help reduce the 33 million tons of food that Americans waste each year that contributes to the largest component of U.S. solid waste and a large portion of methane emissions.” I’m still amazed that one little thing can help our food last longer, and help reduce food spoilage. One of the main goals of the BerryBreeze is to help reduce waste: “The average American wastes around 40% of all edible food and if we could save just 15% of that, it would be enough to feed 25 million people.”