Save £100 a year on food bills with these top tips for making your fruit and veg last longer

Shoppers could save £100 a year on food bills with a fresh approach to storing their fruit and veg.

Certain fresh foods produce gases as they ripen that can affect other fruit and veg stored nearby, reducing their shelf life and increasing wastage.

As part of its Waste Less, Save More campaign, Sainsbury's has produced a Culinary Companionship Code that lists all fruit and veg, whether to store them in the fridge, the cupboard or in the bowl, and the best and worst storage companions.

The infographic, shown here, was compiled by Product Technologists, and guides shoppers through a list of perfect partners for each fruit and vegetable.

Feel free to let your apples rub shoulders with your cherries in the fridge - cherries aren't affected by the high levels of ethylene proudced by apples - but keep the apples away from those watermelons as ethylene can turn melons mushy.

You have been warned.

Tomatoes and plums will last longer stored in the fridge, but bring them to room temperature before eating to ensure the best flavour.

Onions and potatoes are 'frenemies', says the Code, because while the ethylene produced by onions is small and won't impact on the shelf-life of potatoes, it can taint them with its onion flavour. Meanwhile, the poor banana, it seems, is feted to live a solitary life. 'Keep away from others!' warns the Code. 'Bananas will results in most fruit or veg ripening quickly and spoiling.'

'Storing food correctly to make the most of its shelf life at home is key to reducing the 4.2 million tonnes of good food that goes to waste from UK households every year,' says Sainsbury's Head of Love Food, Hate Waste.

'Making what might seem like small changes to how you store food can make a big difference. For example, keeping fruit in the fridge instead of the fruit bowl can help it to last longer.'

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