Australian chef Marion Grasby shares her top hacks for keeping food fresh

Australian chef and journalist Marion Grasby knows exactly how much food can be wasted in the average home kitchen.

The fridge vegetable cooler can be a ghost yard of abandoned lettuce leaves and old carrots that your optimistic past self picked up at the supermarket.

Research by Panasonic has revealed Aussie households throw out an average of $128 million worth of food every single week. For one family, this can cost up to $683 a year – but chef Grasby has come to our rescue.

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Grasby has plenty of tips to help combat food wastage in the everyday kitchen.

Ultimately, she says it all comes down to the right technology.

"A good quality appliance with great technology can help reduce waste in the kitchen and keep your ingredients at their best for longer, which means great tasting food and a happy household," Grasby says.

"One thing that I like to do as a busy mum is grocery shop on the weekend, which means I have lots of meats and seafood that I want to keep fresh for the full week. I hate food waste, so I try my best to plan meals in advance and only buy what I need, but when plans change.

She adds: "I have got some recipes I regularly fall back on when I need to use things up, from vegetable pakoras to stir-fry."

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Panasonic's new fridge range includes a Prime Freeze drawer in the freezer section, which Grasby uses to keep her vegetables frozen and fresher for longer.

There is also a Fresh Safe drawer for fruit and vegetables, located in the middle of the fridge, which maintains 90 per cent humidity for keeping the produce fresh and succulent. 

"I am someone that keeps a lot of vegetables in my fridge and the Fresh Safe drawer has an automatic moisture control filter which maintains the optimum humidity to keep your vegetables and fruit nice and fresh," she adds.

Grasby's top ten hacks for ensuring her fruit and veggies are never chucked in the bin, wilted and soggy, include:

1. Use damp kitchen paper

"I am a big fan of using herbs such as coriander, basil or mint in my cooking. To keep them fresher for longer, I like to wrap them in some slightly dampened kitchen paper and then pop it in the Prime Fresh Drawer.

2. Never impulse buy fruit and veggies

Sit down and work out your week ahead and the meals that can fit around that. And don't go food shopping when you are hungry, as you will only impulse buy.

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3. Utilise your freezer

Using your freezer is a great way of reducing waste, so consider portioning up meat, for example, when you get home from the shops and freezing what you won't use that week.

4. Wrap in paper bags

Ginger root can last much longer kept in the fridge. Wrap it in a paper bag and pop it in your crisper. It also freezes really well.

5. Soft-freeze your food

Soft freezing your food retains its juices. This is handy and practical when you are slicing up your meats on your chopping board, so you do not get juices everywhere.

6. Rapid freeze your fruits

If you are freezing things like berries or fruits, rapid freezing means you can separate fruits a lot easier than if you have ice crystals from freezing in a regular freezer."