Ask Mike: Opening Pandora’s Drawer
Hey Guys,
I’ve been peering into refrigerators all my life, but the other morning I saw something I’d never noticed — a drawer labeled “fruit crisper.” What the heck? Of course, the drawer had been there forever, but in my rush to grab the OJ every morning, I never paid attention to it. Intrigued by my belated discovery, I asked the fine folks of Yahoo! Answers if these “crispers” really work as advertised.
Fortunately, my fellow ‘fridge aficionados offered a variety of answers. Community member Kc Mrow does use the bottom drawer for fruit, but doesn’t believe it actually keeps the food any fresher. However, Kc points out that vegetable expert Pete Ferretti “advocates liberal use of the crisper drawers when storing produce” to help keep the fruits and vegetables fresh and to keep their odors from co-mingling. Other responders believe the drawers are intended to keep bacteria from meats away from fruits and veggies.
Another community member, Naomi M, referred me to an article from Expert Village. The site points out that these drawers have two intended purposes. First, simple organization. A fridge can be a messy place and keeping the fruit in one place helps. Second, they offer humidity control. Apparently, refrigerators use a baffle system to “allow the air that is circulating” in the fridge entry into the drawer. The drawers are also humidity controlled, which keeps their contents fresher for a longer period of time.
That’s the goal, anyway. Do they really work? As someone who has never used the crisper drawer (at least, not knowingly), I have no idea. What say you? Do crispers really “crisp” or is this all some sort of conspiracy perpetrated by the Maytag repairman? Leave a comment below and let me know.
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Wow, 1st comment. I’ve found that produce usually gets bumped and uncrisp in the crisper than when in the fridge or counter. Plus you may not notice it as much when it’s in there.
I think the main reason for the two drawers below is that certain items come in bags, or loosely packaged, and they would be harder to handle on a shelf compared to a drawer. I use the right-hand drawer for cheese (yes, I use a LOT of cheese!), and I can’t use the left-hand drawer at all because the landlord put the fridge too close to the window and the door won’t open far enough.
I remember my mother saying that the crispers were for vegetables, but that fruits should usually not be refrigerated at all. They are furtherest away from the freezer, and in the old not-frost-free days, that meant they were not quite as cold. I don’t know if that’s still true in 21st century technology.
Don’t know about crispiness, but I have three drawers. One is just a plain old drawer for whatever. One is humidity controlled with a dial I can set for high or low humidity. I guess you would consider that a crisper, but it sure doesn’t stop my fruit from getting moldy in a few days. I usually just leave it out on the counter. That way, I don’t forget to eat it before it goes bad. One of the other drawers is “convertable” according to the label, for meats or vegetables, and has a dial to set to one or the other. And that’s the one that has me really confused. I usually use it for veggies, but I bought my Thanksgiving turkey the day before and stored it in the “meat” drawer on the “meat” setting, and it froze overnight. Not the best Thanksgiving ever. Maybe I should have kept the owners manual.
in all the refrigerators i’ve had, my fruit and vegetables freeze if i don’t put them in the crisper. especially susceptible are the lettuce and citrus. since they freeze before i can use them, i’m not sure if the drawer keeps them longer. with strawberries, for example, it’s really hit-or-miss, and always in the drawer.
I dont know if it helps any, but I dont use it. If I put fruit or lettuce or something in there I forget about it and it goes bad, out of site, out of mind.
It is called E Coli, death and lawsuits.
If you store any protein base food such as meats above fruits and veggies that will not be cooked, the chances of the meat’s blood dripping onto the fruits and veggies below that will not be cooked increases the risk of E Coli.
The refrigirator’s crisp veggi drawer is to train your brain to not store meats or fish above raw fruits and veggies. Your body is more important then E Coli.
Air promotes bacteria to multiply. A drawer is a conceiled environment that slows down the aging process of raw fruits and veggies.
I do not have a crisp drawer in my fridge as my fridge is old. I created a crisp drawer with a sealed plastic container that stores my fresh veggies to last longer.
I am a gournet chef so the freshness of my vegetables is crucial to my cooking.
poorly listed to be fruit / crisper and or multipurpose use, like we dont know that. i sure dont want my oranges crisp, i know they have been in there too long.
Crispers do work! (or at least mine does). Run a simple experiment, place one fruit, say an apple, outside of the crisper, and another fruit inside the crisper (to reduce experimental error make sure to use a few apples/fruits all from the same bag, ideally hoping that all fruits in that bag come from the same place/time).
i’ve noticed that if my crisper is full and i have no room, usually i’ll just put the produce right above it. obviously, i put that in after i bought the stuff that was in the crisper, but it got a lot more [gross] than the produce in the crisper. i don’t know if it honestly keeps it crispy [wierd!] but i know for sure it keeps it fresh. plus, it’s cool. ‘crisper’. it just screams amazingness. xD
we have two in ours. one is used for my fruit.. the only effect seems to be rotting because i forget it is there. the other is used for my snacks such as trail mix, cheese, pudding cups, yogurt tubes.. that sort of thing. this does seem to help keep my yogurt fresher and prevent the trail mix from going stale, i must admit. not so much the munch n’ crunch, though.. that just gets soggy.
I actually call that drawer (most US fridges have them) the “vegetable rotter drawer” as opposed to “crisper”. As Megan said, out of sight, out of mind.
I couldn’t rightly say whether or not it would do its intended job or not if I ever remembered to pull something out within a month.
What I wonder about is why the thought of “crisp fruit” would sound appealing to any prospective buyer of your fridge.
I always honestly thought they were for just what you found out at the Expert site….simple organization…makes more sense to me than the silly gadgets they claim that do the job of keeping foods longer…that my friend is something I would speculated into thinking that manufacturers are just trying to make more $$ with their “newly improved” product lines…Just when people say you’re just buying a pair of jeans at the Department store that has just a “label” they’re still made of cotton mostly….LOL.
I always honestly thought they were for just what you found out at the Expert site….simple organization…makes more sense to me than the silly gadgets they claim that do the job of keeping foods longer…that my friend is something I would be speculating into thinking that manufacturers are just trying to make more $$ with their “newly improved” product lines…Just when people say you’re just buying a pair of jeans at the Department store that has just a “label” they’re still made of cotton mostly….LOL.
I’m afraid of the crisper. I keep it empty and avoid it at all cost. It scares me. It’s way too low, far away, and mysterious. What is this strange obscure area of my frige? Could there be a black whole hidden there? I really don’t know, you are far braver than I to venture into that unknown area.
Good Luck, brave fellow.
I’ve always been an advocate for crispers. I wash my veggies and fruits prior to placing them there, and they always reward me with their “crispness”.So I must say they do work for me. As well as keeping odors, and contamination away.Keeps the frig nice and neat as well.
I use the friut drawer to keep friuts. it is to keep your friuts fresher abit longer..i also have one for veggies and both have a slider to increase or decrease moisture. i can say it can extend the life of your friuts and veggies for only a wee bit longer.
Nothing beats an air sealed bag. Toss it in and use your foot to close the drawer till your hungry for what ever meals next on the menu.
off subject:
Out of Sight / Out o Mind?
try this…..
http://www.stchas.edu/divisions/aao/ace/notebooks/impromem.shtml
Aaahhh, the art of the fridge…..the crisper drawer is meant to keep yr veggies and some fruit cold & crisp as they were before they were plucked from the cold hard earth. It does keep them fresher. I find that also keeping them in their bags–even the produce bags you pull off–keeps ‘em better, and when they rot, much neater to throw away. Thats b/c the circulating air of the fridge can dry out and wilt stuff. While many fruits shouldn’t be fridged, it’s great for apples, pears, grapes, oranges, but not so good on peaches & bananas. BTW dairy–excluding cheese–should be put on the top/coldest shelf b/c those items are in need of the most refridgeration, other things can go in the middle or door.
It probably helps because you wouldn’t have it being exposed to the opening and closing of the fridge, like you would if it wasn’t in the drawer. I always thought that was the real reason, to keep it from being exposed to the normal opening and closing. Trust me exposure can be rough, I’ve had things in door and notice the difference in just the door to regular shelves.
The first refrigerator we had when I was a kid, as opposed to an ice box (remember, I’m old) had a crisper drawer. And every one I’ve had since has. Those were not frost-free, there was no humidity control anywhere. Frosty ones did not dry out the food. The crisper was at the bottom because cold sinks, and that was the coldest place in the fridge, other than the freezing compartment itself. And it kept the fruits and veggies fresher longer. Then we had frost-free, but no humidity control. The crisper was just a place to put your fresh produce where if it was not wrapped securely, it would go limp in a matter of hours. Frost-free is low humidity. I have a brand new fridge now, with 2 crisper drawers and a meat drawer. Air circulates, so cold doesn’t sink anymore, at least not in there, and the freezer is separate. I love not having to defrost, but I don’t love having to make sure everything is covered, wrapped, hidden away, so that it doesn’t dry out. And the humidity controlled crisper drawers may allow a little humidity to stay around the fresh stuff, but not enough to keep it crisp long enough for me to use it up unless once again, it is securely wrapped. I use a Tupperware tub specially designed to keep my stuff crisp. They even have a special one for lettuce. No, I don’t sell Tupperware.
the best advice i got was to take vegetables out of the plastic covering it comes in from the grocery. it seems the plastic acts as a catalyst for accelerated decay, keeping in the gases that promote ripening of fruit and vegetables. produce does seem to last longer out of the bag.
THERE ARE TWO OF THERE DRAWERS IN OUR FRIDGE,AND I DONT KNOW WHY THEYRE THERE FOR.THE TEMPERATURE IS THE SAME ALL THROUGH THE FRIDGE! WHAT A WASTE.
“I’ve been peering into refrigerators all my life”….
Don’t you think you should get out a little more?
I’ve never experienced a crisper but I generally find that the compartment at the bottom of the fridge keeps salad vegetables fresher than if they were just left on the fridge shelf. My tip for fresh herbs is to keep them in the door of the fridge.
But don’t spend too much time peering into the refrigerator; there may be more constructive things you could be doing with your time.
I’ve heard that certain veggies need to be kept away from other veggies or the odors as well as the bacteria found on them tend to get out of hand and start a war with each other. What I’ve heard is that onions and potatoes need to stay away from each other, because the onion odor tends to make the potatoes go soft quicker, thus the potatoes create more bacteria, causing the onions to spoil quicker. So we’re supposed to use one crisper drawer for things like apples and the other for things like carrots. But root veggies like onions and potatoes actually do better when not refrigerated. Carrots are usually dense enough to withstand the fridge to a large degree.
Anyway, that’s what I’ve heard.
Anytime I put a fruit or veggie into that darn crisper drawer i forget i even bought it. That turns into me opening the drawer a month later to decomposing produce. Not a pretty sight.
I use one for cheese too.cool auntb93.Its only me at my house so I buy very little that has to be cooked so fruits and veggies are the best. I use the side without my cheese in it for my veggies most of the time but some times I just through them on a shelf because I am feeling lazy that day or Im in a hurry. I dont really think there is a diff. because when I use the drawers for my veggies they last about the same time as the ones that get put on a shelf. As far as my fruit I dont put it in the fredge at all. My fruit goes in a bowl on the counter. Hmm whats up with that. I wonder If I should be putting it in the fredge.
Fruit Crisper drawers are low humidity drawers. Your fruits and vegetables are not exposed to the humidity within the fridge that forms when the cold air in the fridge meets the warm air outside. Instead, it stays a nice average temperature. I also protects the fruit from freezing if your fridge is too cold. If lettuce or other produce as well as most fruits are exposed to extreme temperature changes (like opening and shutting the fridge door) they become over ripe or soggy. They become mushy or brown much faster in the fridge then in the crisper. So while it doesn’t actually crisp your food, it will help keep it ripe and crispy for longer than on one of the shelves.
My mother who is now 82 has always used the bottom drawer as a fruit crisper or even better a vegetable crisper. Why it does not work most of the time is because that gets coldest and then the items start ot wither due to all the moisture. Her solution is to wrap each and every item for the crisper in absorbent paper, manila paper, or newspapers and they last so much longer as the items remain in cool, stable condition with external moisture shut out or absorbed by the paper.
It helps to keep your fruits and vegetables from taking on the flavor and odor of each other. You don’t want your plums tasting like onions, etc.
Actually these “Crispers” were not in refridgerators until the 1970′s. As time went on (and I became an adult),I’ve noticed that they don’t keep certain foods fresh at all. If you have the crispers at the bottom of the fridge,they don’t keep food fresh. I think it’s because the cold air does’nt penetrate them,so I don’t use them. I have crispers on the middle shelf of my fridge,and I keep me breakfast meats in one,and my veggies in the other. They last a long time in there. I don’t recommend using the bottom crispers. Your lettuce & tomatoes will dry out and wilt down there.
Wow, sherlock. You are really observant.
It’s been my experience that this is the place fruits and veggies go to die.
I find it does help to organize things, but I have not observed things getting “crispier”, just wiltier.
I know it’s there, and that’s where I usually store stuff that I don’t have room for in the open. Then a month will go by before I notice it’s in the crisper mysteriously growing something out the side of it, like some fluffy white hair, or bumpy green spots. My food ends up looking like science experiment rather than food..lol.
i put my potatoes in the bottom crisper and my meats in one. potatoes keep longer in cool dark places.
celery and carrots freeze easily in the crispers too
I like them and I will tell you why. I love fresh produce, and putting the fruit in the bottom of fridge does serve as a fitness incenitve, forcing me to bend down in order to retreive the delicious, crispy cukes, apples and grapes. And, later when I have forgotten them for a month or so, I have the added exercise opportunity of getting on my hands and knee’s to scrub out the mess!
The crisper retains freshness only in a limited way because it’s always being opened to admit fridge air. My vegs keep crisper in plastic bags, kept anywhere in the fridge, providing I leave small (breathing) holes to let off carboacidic buildup that will rot leaves and fruits.
The drawers will work as prescibed if you allow air to circulate completely around the contents. This can be accomplished in several ways. The easy way is to line the drawers with a sponge net drawer liner. You should also turn the contents every few days. I “tumble” mine each time I go into a drawer, usually about once a day.
If you find that you still get spoilage, then you need to examine the airflow within the refrigerator. You may be blocking it with bags or cartons or a baffle may be broken.
Should you get spoilage, the entire drawer needs to be removed, sanitized and a new liner placed in it. Do not put the contents minus the spoilage back in without throughly cleaning, if practical, otherwise discard it.
Keeping your refrigerator functioning properly, clean, and free of any spoilage is the best way to insure your food is free of contamination.
Mine works, if I can actually remember to put the stuff in it! Usually, I just toss things in onto a shelf and forget about the bottom drawers, or the bottom drawers usually have beer in them, so there’s no room!
well i dont know about how much “crisping” they do but i thought the sole purpose of their existence was to organize. the best way i found to keep my fruits and veggies longer was to wash and scrub them gently with mild soap and water, then rinse then dry and to the fridge drawer they go. i have way less spoilage…
I figure it’s just marketing. After being intimately involved with refrigerators for 60 years, I’ve never had anything “crisp”. Of course that’s not the expensive refrigerators which probably do have controls and gadgets for air circulation.
In quite a few homes this “drawer” should be called the “rotter” instead of the “crisper”. You look at what is in there and say…its still good, shut the drawer…open it…its still good…etc…
I think that they basicly are just to keep foods organized since they do not keep your fruits fresher.
Also, why not call them fruit organizer. Fruit crisper is just a fancy word that will make people want to buy that refridgerator. Thats what I think.
Refrigerators in one way contribute for global warming and cause damage to ozone layer.
Refrigent gas freeon or Ammonia form a thin blackish layer on foodstuffs stored, which is a health hazard.
The food may be crisper since the moisture is withdrawn from the eatables.
Modern way of living can’t go wihout a fridge.
I own a Maytag and use my crisper all the time. Yes it does work. I have temp control on mine for fruit and veggies and it extends the life of my produce by at least two weeks. I noticed when I bought it right away they stayed fresher much longer. I sometimes think it depends on the brand refridgerator you own. I definitely don’t believe they all work the same. My previous one also had a crisper but did not work. SO I think it depends mostly on the brand. I have found Maytag the best in my book.
Technically speaking it is Pandoras Box
Wait…I have to go look to see how my drawers are labeled. I must have a very cheesy model..both mine are just labeled crisper. I think they work/ But I think we should perform a test. two pieces of fruit, one in the crisper and one out…
I did notice one thing…my refrigerator needs to be cleaned!
i guess that was your first time cleaning the frig since you brought it
wow mike, how old are you anyway? You just discovered your refridgerator’s crisper? Did you have parents?
I see another of your questions was ‘what if there was no moon?’ or ‘what good is the moon anyway?’ or whatever.
Real bright candle you are.
You must work for yahoo.
When I used to use the crisper drawer for fruit I would come home from the store throw it in the drawer and then find it 3 weeks later on the verge of rotting! I eat the fruit that I keep on the shelves since it is in site and everyone knows it exists. We now use the crisper drawer for soda and yogurt.
I was thinking the exact same thing this morning when I took some lettuce out of the crisper. It didn’t seem all that crisp, and I was trying to figure out if it came that way from the grocery store, or if the method of storage was faulty. What exactly is the crisper… just a drawer in my fridge? or does it have a seperate temperature, or some other special features… Either way, just thought I’d mention that I was strangely enough, thinking the same thing today.
Just to complicate matters further, my refrigerator has two crisper drawers. One is labeled “Cool and Fresh” while the other is labeled “Moist and Fresh.” I’ve never been able to figure out what’s supposed to go in which drawer, much less whether they do what they’re supposed to do or not
Lol
hey!! i just had a look at my fridge, (lol people all over the world peering in to their fridges!!) my fridge must be well naff, as it has nothing written anywhere!
though i do have 2 little drawers at the bottem, but to be honest i have no fruit in mine! i keep cans of cola and chocolate in there, so the kids aged 3, do not spot them. as they too enjoy gazing into the fridge. must be a world wide thing. i find myself just having a look for no actual reason, even though i know most of the time there is noting worth while having in there.
as for fruit staying crisper mmmm im not sure prob not! prob just a marketing ploy, like i said mines cheap and has none!!
lol, take care!
Reading through this I find that people who are younger than I have the idea that the crisper drawer was born in the 1970′s. The International Harvester refrigerator that my parents bought in 1949 in fact had a crisper drawer. So did the one (I don’t remember the brand) that my first mother-in-law had bought sometime before 1959. Anyway, I first saw hers in 1959, and it was not new. But I have lived in many furnished apartments etc., with older refrigerators (even those like in “The Honeymooners”) and they did not.
I have to add still more. My mother, in 1964 had another refrigerator that had not one but two crisper drawers. And not being frost free refrigerators, both drawers worked very well for their intended purpose. It is the low humidity in the frost free versions that keep them from working properly, which is why there is a humidity control on the drawers now. My last fridge, bought in the 1980′s had one drawer labled high humidity and one labled low. Neither worked properly. I was surprised when I bought my new one that it actually has controls for humidity in the drawers, not that it makes any difference. They don’t work.
It’s a dumb marketing idea because the only thin that drawer ever collects is WATER! I usually find rotting bananas or lettuce in there in a pool of water.
LOL They should be named “Rotters” instead of “Crispers” because thats what happens
Food Rots in there
I only use the two drawers at the bottom of my fridge to store bottled waters or teas and I have to say that the one labeled fruit and the other labeled vegetables are equally as useful for drink storage.
hey hey hey its fat albert
Keep what you find in Pandora’s drawer’s to yourself.
That is information a gentleman never shares with anyone!
in Pandora’s drawers, actually.
was up peace out.
In general both fruits and vegetables should be in high humidity areas. (85-95% RH) Opening the fridge and letting warm air in, I argue, is better for the fruits and vegetables because the warm air condenses when it meets the cool air and creates nice moisture for the fruits and vegetables. I don’t think that just opening the fridge changes the temperature much. Plus, I honestly don’t think opening or closing the little slider thing does absolutely anything. Moisture will find a way to distribute itself evenly throughout the fridge unless the bins are air tight. Which, I doubt they are. It may delay the introduction of moisture/heat/smelly things, other than that, I think they should be outlawed for reasons of confusing everyone, including me.
I discovered that all fruits and vegatbles emit a gas called ethylene. And the more it emits this gas, the more it ripens and eventually, rots. With this logic, the closer fruits and vegtables are to one another, the faster they will deteriorate. hmmm…
I think the bins’ real effectiveness come from keeping the fruits/ vegetables from rolling around and out the fridge because most of them are shaped like baseballs. I mean, imagine trying to store 20 baseballs in your fridge. or anywhere for that matter.
I’ve never heard of individual bin moisture control, but that sounds pretty effective though.
pg 8 and 9 of this link give a comprehensive list of all ethylene senstivitie fruits and vegetables:
http://www.gohealthyharvest.com/documents/HHwp.pdf
wow u rly had to waste my time with a question like that? Ask the people in the aplliance department at Sears and get on with ur life
I have found that actually storing the fruit outside when I have gotten too much to fit in the drawer the bin open tends to make it last longer but alas it tends to fall all over so I tend to put it in the drawer possibly I could remove the drawer and just set fruit in that space of place it all over the refrigerator. The problem is if the fruit is hit by other things being moved around in the refrigerator it gets bruised thus rots faster. So it is all and all in placement of the fruit more so than anything else unless you have plenty of safe space or open containers to place elsewhere and protect the fruit in an open container. I guess this is from the ethylene gas being emitted or over stacking the fruit in the bins?
Also my potatos last longer in the refrigerator than outside but I live in a humid warm area in northern Florida also but after awhile they get kind of dehydrated and wrinkly if they are not eaten and are left in the fridge.
works great for beer storage!
what happens in the fridge stays in the fridge.
that is such a kewl blog. We live in such a fast pace setting, that we neglect the little funny curious things that surround our every space. Really neat!
this whole discussion is really cool.
Why don’t you experiment with something like this: put a dozen apples in the crisper and put another dozen above it and see what happens within a week or two.
refridgeration and low humidity are key to keeping fruits and vegattable freshes longer and although the crisper is not exactly a “high tech” humidor It does do the job of keeping items fresh until ready to be eaten withen a resonable time.
Hmmm…sounds like a crispiracy to me…
The drawers in the fridge are better for fresh vegetables – I use one drawer for them and one for fruit – mostly so they don’t roll around – and there are times when they keep each other company!
Also gives greater organization in the fridge.
I grew up in a household with the crisper being for salad stuff and deli stuff. Nowadays, if you have more than one crisper drawer, you can store all your little snacks and stuff that no one else can touch!
OK, I read about halfway through the comments and decided I would figure this, and another age-old question, out at the same time. After wrestling with the shelves a little and taking out the crisper drawer completely (my fridge is old so it’s just a drawer at the bottom, nothing fancy) I have an answer for all of you.
- Hope that helps.
My toes were colder and dryer than the rest of me (although the sweats from the claustrophobia could explain that) and the light DOES go out when you close the door! So glad to be out of that small, cold, dark dungeon.