Woman shares creative tips for preserving food for longer by making proper use of fridge trays

Food wastage is a critical global issue that continues to happen despite so many people suffering from a shortage of food. Every day, an alarming amount of food is wasted at homes and restaurants. Tackling the problem of wasting food should begin at home and expand to bigger establishments. TikTok creator @shelbizleee, whose profile description reads, "Do your best and advocate for the rest," has come up with an easy trick to preserve fruits and vegetables in the fridge for longer. The popular video, captioned, "How do you prevent food waste in your fridge??" has gained immense popularity over the platform.

She begins the video by stating, "Stop wasting money by using these drawers in your fridge all wrong." She opens up her fridge and shows slides on the vegetable and fruit tray that can help with preserving them for longer, allowing people to save money. According to her, keeping the slides open allows humidity within the tray to escape, so one can keep organic items that rot quickly for longer by keeping the trays open.

She holds up broccoli and two apples as items that could last longer with this practice. Closing the same slide would prevent the humidity from escaping, which would be ideal for preserving things with some water content, such as curry leaves. She ends the short clip by saying, "This is the best way to store food properly."

Most people who watched the video on the platform did not have a clear idea of how to use the sliders in their fridges and were grateful for the advice. @myusernmae.543 commented, "I honestly didn't even realize those were open and close slides. I would just slide them around randomly and hope for the best." Another user, @ducanatisgaming, pointed out, "Or read the manual that it comes with and boom, Omg, your mind will be blown. This info is in there."

The drawer that the creator mentions in the video is a crisper drawer, alternatively called a humidity drawer. According to Whirlpool, its purpose is to retain the freshness of and preserve organic food items by tweaking the humidity levels. One can set the drawer to a high or low humidity level by controlling the airflow that enters and exits the tray. Suppose one wants a high level of humidity. In that case, airflow is cut off from the drawer, allowing for fruits and vegetables to be stored in an ideal environment. Similarly, if one wants a low humidity level, then airflow is permitted, causing water content to escape.

Food shortage is not really a problem in America. Still, according to Feeding America, 119 billion pounds of good food gets wasted each year. This figure roughly equates to 130 billion meals and about $408 billion worth of food being wasted. What is an even more worrying statistic is that 40% of all food in the country is wasted. So, considering these numbers, it's best to begin doing the little things that make a significant impact in preserving food.