How To Store Packaged Salad Greens To Keep Them 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

Step 2 of keeping lettuce fresh – put the paper towel on top of the salad greens:

paper towel to keep lettuce fresh

Step 3 of keeping lettuce fresh – close the salad greens package and put it in the refrigerator

packaged salad greens lettuce mix

Don’t forget to change the paper towel every day, and you packaged salad greens will stay fresh the whole week.

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10 Comments

  1. I store whole heads of lettuce (after breaking out the stem and washing them) with some paper towel under them and in a plastic bowl. A large plastic storage bag works well, too. They’ll keep for a couple of weeks like that.

  2. This is brilliant. I have been storing regular leaf lettuce this way for years but never thought to store my bagged lettuce in the same manner. Since I am the only one who eats it, it all goes South before I can finish the box or bag.

    This works just as the way I store the leaf lettuce. Who knew? Thanks for the advice.

  3. …and if you use good paper towels like Viva, when you take the paper towel(s) out of the bag and replace it, just leave the used one on the counter to dry. You can reuse it.

  4. I will try this but just wondering if you go thru all the trouble to buy healthy, organic greens and then use a paper towel that has been bleached and dyed, doesn’t that defeat the purpose? I’m sure some of the paper towel “chemicals” gets on your nice healthy organic greens…just wondering am I the only one that thinks this?

    1. Scott all natural paper towel doesn’t have the chemicals in it nor has it been bleached. I can only find the naturals at Walgreens so I stock up when on sale plus an in store coupon is available

  5. I had tried paper towel but did not know to change it daily; wow now I do – the mixed greens with the arugula and the raddicio and the purple leaf always starts the decay process within days. So I had divided the last mix into a cereal bag and rolled it up real tight and the mix lasted about 3 days in that bag; but I like your idea better.

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