How To Keep Bagged Salad Mix Fresh

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packaged salad greens lettuce mix

When you buy packaged salad greens, do they spoil quickly? Don't you just hate it when your packaged lettuce leaves turn soggy and wilted after just a few days? Do you shell out money on organic lettuce greens just to have them spoil before the expiration date? With my method of storing packaged salad greens, the packaged lettuce keeps in the refrigerator for up to a week – and it stays green and crisp, as if you bought it today!

Before you buy packaged salad greens, you should always check the expiration date. If the expiration date is in the next few days, forget about keeping this lettuce fresh – it's already old to begin with. The expiration date on the packaged lettuce should be at least 5 days away.

The trick to keeping packaged salad greens fresh longer is to put a paper towel inside the package to absorb excess moisture. Yes, it's that simple and it really works. Simply put a paper towel inside the package of the salad greens and change that paper towel every day. When you take out that paper towel the next day, you will see that the paper towel is wet. If not for the paper towel, all that moisture would be spoiling the lettuce! The paper towel draws the moisture out of the salad greens, allowing packaged salad greens to stay fresh longer.

If you have a large package of the salad greens, keep several sheets of paper towels inside the package – the more lettuce there is, the more moisture there is that needs to be drawn out by those paper towels. For a small plastic bag of lettuce, one sheet of paper towel is enough.

Try the paper towel trick and you'll be amazed on how long you can keep your packaged salad greens fresh! This method makes such a huge difference is how long the packaged lettuce stays fresh, I feel it should be printed on every package of salad greens :)

Here are some pictures of how I use paper towels to keep packaged salad greens fresh longer:

Step 1 of keeping lettuce fresh – open the package of lettuce greens

open box of salad greens