How to Store Navel Oranges
We have all done it. How many times have you bought a bag of fruit, and then weeks later find them rotten in the back of your fridge, hidden from site for so long? Not only is this a waste of the money you spent, but it is also a waste of great produce that you never got to enjoy. If this has ever happened to you when you bought a bag of navel oranges, then fear not! These navel oranges storage tips will ensure that even if you can not eat your navel oranges right away, they will stay good and edible for as long as possible, even if they are relegated to the back of the fridge.
The first thing to know when you are planning to store navel oranges is that they will keep for awhile even outside of the fridge. If the navel oranges you selected are already ripe and ready to eat, you will not want to keep them stored at room temperature for more than about three days, four days tops. If you bought the navel oranges and they still have a little green in them, you can store them outside your fridge for roughly a week, or three to four days after the green on the orange starts to subside.
If you are not planning on consuming all of your navel oranges within three to four days, refrigeration is necessary. You can safely store them in the fridge for up to two weeks. Since the fruit has a thick outer peel, it protects the fruit inside. Still, if the peel starts to rot due to excessive moisture, you run into the same problem mentioned in the first paragraph. So make sure you dry the outside of the fruit properly. If you are trying to keep them two weeks or longer, wrap them individually in paper to keep moisture out. If you have sliced them you will want to put them in a sealed container to keep them as fresh as possible.
The ideal refrigerator temperature for navel oranges is somewhere between 45 and 48 degrees. This will keep them as fresh as possible for as long as possible.
Beyond that, the only other way to keep oranges stored is in the freezer. Because the fruit outside of the peel is so delicate, it is best to only store them for a short period of time, no more than a month. They must be tightly wrapped and in thick, preferably multi ply bags or containers. Without these, the fruit can easily become bruised or have cold spots. Either of these can really not only ruin the texture of the fruit but also the flavor as well. For this reason, you should try to only buy navel oranges that you can consume within two weeks of when you bought them.
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