The Best Way to Store Apples to Keep Them Fresh for Over Six Weeks
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One of fall’s greatest pleasures is a visit to an apple orchard — delighting in hot apple cider doughnuts dusted with cinnamon sugar, sipping on fresh apple cider, and, of course, picking a bounty of fruit to take back home. Since all 50 states are able to grow apples, most folks have access to an orchard. But if not, produce stands and grocery stores tend to offer regional varieties to give you a good taste of apples at peak season.
When you land a good haul of apples, though, you’ll want to store them so they’ll stay fresh for as long as possible. But what’s the best way? Do room temperature methods keep the fruit in tip-top shape, or should the fruit go into the fridge? Should the apples be loose or kept in some sort of bag or container?
To find out, I embarked on a six-week test, pitting seven methods against each other. The good news is that all of the apples lasted for at least five weeks, and the even better news is that the top two methods kept the apples delightfully sweet-tart, crisp, and juicy for well beyond six weeks, so you’ll always have apples on-hand for your autumnal baking projects. Read on to learn more so you can find the technique that suits you (and your kitchen) best.
Two methods edged out all others, keeping the apples at peak freshness for a full six weeks (and likely well beyond). The winning method — individually wrapping apples in newspaper and storing them in a pantry — only slightly edged out storing them in a paper bag in the fridge’s crisper drawer.
A Few Notes on Methodology
The apples: I purchased organic, unwaxed Honeycrisp apples for my testing — all from the same market, and with the same packed-on date. For testing, I used the freshest, most pristine-looking apples I could find, with intact stems and no signs of bruising or broken skins. I used three apples for each method.
Storage spaces: My testing involved three storage spaces. The first was in my fridge’s crisper drawer; my refrigerator stayed between 37°F and 38°F. The second place was on my kitchen counter, out of direct sunlight; room temperature in my kitchen stayed between 70°F and 72°F. The third location was my pantry, in a separate cabinet from any other fruits or vegetables.
Testing period: The full scope of my assignment was six weeks (the duration being dictated by my deadline). I checked on the apples every couple of days for the first month, then every day for the last two weeks of testing. Four of the seven methods kept the apples good for the entire six weeks, with a couple leaving the apples in such good shape that they could go well beyond six weeks. I’ve made note of the freshness duration for each method.
Ratings: I rated each method on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 representing the pinnacle of perfection. The ratings are based on how long the apples remained fresh, which I determined by how they looked whole and when cut into, plus how well their textures and flavors held up.
Method #1: In a Paper Bag on the Counter
Rating: 6/10
Duration: 5 weeks
About this method: For this test, I placed the three apples into a brown paper bag, in a single layer on the bottom, and folded the top of the bag down to seal it. I placed the bag on my kitchen counter, out of direct sunlight.
Results: For the first month, the apples held up well. Midway through the fourth week, they started to look a little worse for wear, and at the five-week mark, they all had some dark soft spots. Two of the apples had noticeably wrinkled and shriveled skins, especially near the stems. When I cut into the apples, they all had some browned/rotten spots inside. I tasted some of the unblemished flesh from each apple, and they all seemed dry and bland.
Method #2: In a Bowl on the Counter
Rating: 6.5/10
Duration: 5 1/2 weeks
About this method: For this test, I placed the apples in a shallow bowl so that they were in a single layer. I then set this bowl on my kitchen counter, out of direct sunlight.
Results: For a full five weeks, the apples remained fresh and firm. But they started to degrade pretty quickly after that. Despite the skins still being smooth and unwrinkled, after another three days, all of the apples had mushy spots here and there. When I cut into them, I found a little bit of browning where the soft spots were. Upon tasting some bites that weren’t browned, I found the apples had lost most of their acidity, rendering them rather bland.
Method #3: In a Basket on the Counter
Rating: 7/10
Duration: 5 1/2 weeks
About this method: I used an open-style wire basket similar to this one, with lots of spacing to allow the fruit to breathe. The basket was wide enough for the apples to rest in a single layer. I placed the bowl out of direct sunlight on my kitchen counter.
Results: In terms of visible degradation, the results for this method were identical to the bowl method. The apples held up for 5 1/2 weeks, at which point they all had some soft spots. When I cut into the fruit, I found a bit of browning underneath the skin, where the soft spots were. Unlike with the bowl method, though, these apples retained most of their juicy, crisp-sweet flavor; they didn’t go bland as with the other room temperature methods.
Method #4: Loose in the Crisper Drawer
Rating: 8/10
Duration: 6 weeks
About this method: For this test, I simply placed the three apples into my refrigerator’s crisper drawer — not in a bag or container but simply loose.
Results: At the six-week mark, these apples showed their first signs of aging, with some small soft spots on two of the three apples. The skins were taut, smooth, and firm, and the interior showed no signs of browning. Flavor-wise, the apples were juicy and crisp, with a lovely well-balanced flavor.
Method #5: In a Produce Bag in the Crisper Drawer
Rating: 9/10
Duration: 6 weeks
About this method: I placed three apples into a plastic produce bag from the grocery store, then put the bag in the crisper drawer of my refrigerator. I did not tie off or seal the bag, instead leaving it loose and open.
Results: At the six-week mark, there was one tiny blemish — not even a soft spot, really, but a small, slight indentation — on one of the three apples, and the skin on one of the other apples was just starting to wrinkle near the stem. Overall, the apples were still in good shape and would probably last another day or two. They were all still juicy, with a lovely balance of sweetness and acidity.
Method #6: In a Paper Bag in the Crisper Drawer
Rating: 9.8/10
Duration: 6+ weeks
About this method: I loaded three apples into a brown paper bag so that they were in a single layer at the bottom, folded the top of the bag down to seal it, and placed the bag in the crisper drawer of my fridge.
Results: The apples looked mostly perfect after six weeks; one of them had a teeny-tiny pock mark–type blemish near the stem, but otherwise they remained firm and unspoiled. They tasted incredibly crisp and juicy, with the perfect sweet-tart flavor that is characteristic of Honeycrisps.
Method #7: In the Pantry, Wrapped Individually in Newspaper
Rating: 10/10
Duration: 6+ weeks
About this method: I followed the instructions detailed in this video: I wrapped each apple individually in newspaper, arranged the apples in a single layer in a cardboard box, and placed the box in a spot of my pantry that was separate from other fruits and vegetables that produce ethylene gas (such as bananas or potatoes). I am lucky to have a large pantry made up of four individual cabinets, and I placed the box in a cabinet containing no other produce.
Results: A fun bonus of this method is that every time I opened the pantry door, I was greeted with a delightful fragrance reminiscent of the brightest fresh-pressed cider. At the end of my testing period, all of the apples looked just as pretty as they were the day I purchased them — bright, smooth, unblemished skins and firm flesh with no soft spots. They tasted of sweet-tart perfection, retaining all of the juiciness you expect from a pristine Honeycrisp apple. Wrapping them individually helped to contain each apple’s ethylene gas emissions, meaning that if one went bad, it wouldn’t taint the others and cause them to spoil.
Overall Key Takeaways
The top two methods performed almost equally well, with the newspaper method edging out the fridge/paper bag method by a hair.
If you have a pantry that allows you the space to store apples away from other produce, that’s the method for you. You don’t need a walk-in pantry for this method, either; a closed cabinet (that’s away from other produce) will work great.
If you don’t have pantry or cabinet space, know that storing the apples in a paper bag in the crisper drawer works basically just as well. Understand that this method performed quite differently than the paper bag at room temperature method; the latter allowed too much ethylene gas to mingle among all three apples so that they all suffered some damage. The low-temperature environment of the refrigerator lessens the fruit’s sensitivity to the gas, so they last much longer that way.
Finally, if you don’t have adequate pantry space or a paper bag on hand, the plastic bag from the grocery store will work great, too, if you stash the apples in it and place the bag in the crisper drawer.
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