Recently, I was contacted by a representative from Clearly Fresh Bags, who offered to provide me with a sample of their bags.
The bags are designed to keep fruits and vegetables fresh for a longer period of time, up to 50% longer according to the company.
A few days later, I received one pack, which consists of ten bags. The bags are 12 inches by 14 inches, making them large enough to fit most items.
Each bag contains a breatheway membrane which I’ve also seen used on the large packages of broccoli at Costco.
The first thing I did was put a bunch of very ripe strawberries inside the bag. The strawberries were the last of the season at the Carlsbad strawberry fields. If you’ve ever been there, you know there strawberries are very sweet, but also very ripe and usually have to be eaten within a day or two at the most. I didn’t have a test sample that wasn’t in the bag because I didn’t want any strawberries to rot.
I did notice that these strawberries stayed fresh longer. I was able to enjoy them for closer to five days rather than the usual two. But since I didn’t have any not in the bag, it was hard to tell how well the bags worked. Here are how most of the strawberries looked at Day 5 (with a few that did get mushy that were near the bottom of the basket):
Next I tested bananas. I put a bunch, split them in two, and put three in the bag and left two in a regular grocery bag.
I put them in the same place on my dining table and after three days, this is what they looked like. The ones on the left were sitting in a regular plastic grocery bag. The ones on the right were inside the Clearly Fresh Bags.
This is what they looked like after two additional days.
So the bags definitely made some difference. It appears the bags are only available on their website. Hopefully they’ll be available at grocery stores for purchase soon. You can read more about them here.
Hey Kirbie,
Thanks for the review! I won a package of these, and am waiting for them to arrive. Can’t wait to try them!
~Meryl
How cool that you won a package of them!
Neat! My son is always wanting us to buy strawberries, and then they go bad because he doesn’t eat them fast enough. What a great item!
Yeah, I always have such a hard time finishing mine because they go bad so fast. I was surprised how much longer they lasted with the bag.
Great review~ I especially like the side-by-side comparison with the bananas.
I bought these bags a while ago, and although I haven’t really done any testing, I am using them for all my vegetables that I keep in the fridge!
I like that they are big enough to fit a lot of produce inside.
What a great review! I’d be interested to try these out because my boyfriend and I rarely ever buy produce since it always seems to go bad faster than we can cook/bake. Hmm….!
They definitely seem to work well and it helps me not waste produce. I just wish they were more readily available for purchase.