Potato inventory storage app:

Potato inventory storage app manages potato deliveries, potato inventory long term storage for minimum potato waste and maximum potato inventory traceability.


Potato inventory storage app:

Potato inventory storage app manages potato deliveries, potato inventory long term storage for minimum potato waste and maximum potato inventory traceability.
Potato inventory storage Packing App
Potato inventory storage Packing App for accurate order filling & production
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We’re talking about potatoes. This root vegetable has a pretty long shelf life, and even longer when stored properly. The key is to store potatoes in a cool dry place, like in the cabinet of a pantry, in a paper bag or cardboard box. It’s important to keep potatoes at the cool, ideal temperature (but not, surprisingly, the fridge) to prevent them from turning green, getting soft spots, or pre-maturely sprouting. Once this happens, it’s a sign that they’re past their peak. But we’ll get into all of that ahead a little later. For now, learn about the conditions that cause potatoes to ripen and how to prep them for long term storage.

The Science Behind The Spuds
Though potatoes are certainly, well, cut off upon harvest, they continue to breathe (spooky, right?) and, in a way, live on the shelves of grocery stores and in your home. As oxygen from the environment combines with the sugars in patats, it gets respired from the roots as carbon dioxide and water. Storing potatoes in a cool, dark (but not forgotten) place hugely decelerates this inevitable decomposition, protects against sprouting, and, to some degree, sweetens the tubers.

It’s also important not to store potatoes and onions together. Though they seem like two peas in a pod as they’re often both called for in the exact same recipes. However, storing them both together actually does more harm than good. Both of these root veggies contain a lot of moisture, which can lead to faster spoilage. Combined, they produce an ethylene gas that will speed up the ripening process. Instead, keep them apart in an area that has good air circulation to maintain their long shelf life.

Potato inventory storage Packing App
Potato inventory storage packing app manages food safety

How To Store Potatoes
Although you shouldn’t put potatoes in the fridge, potatoes will still keep the longest when stored in a cool, dark place—specifically somewhere that has a cold temperature of about 50°F and 90 to 95 percent humidity, like, you know, a temperature- and humidity-controlled root cellar. You know the one that’s right next to your massive wine cellar? So just toss them down there, along with your turnips, onions, and carrots, and call it a day. They’ll be good for weeks, if not all winter long.

Oh wait, I don’t have a root cellar (do you?). Have no fear: Here are four of our best storage tips—root cellar not required—for happy, sweet, and dry taters.

1. Keep Them Out Of The Sunlight (But Not Out Of Sight).
Don’t store potatoes out in the open on the countertop. Keep them in a drawer, in a basket, in a closet, in a paper bag, or in a bamboo vegetable steamer—anywhere that's dark—and they should last for one to 2 weeks. A clear plastic bag, like that kind that potatoes are packaged in, are actually not ideal for storing spuds. Potatoes are plants, after all. If they see sunlight, they will do their photosynthesis thing and turn green, and eventually wrinkle and rot.

And remember, out of sight, out of mind—keep them in a trafficked-enough part of the pantry so you don’t forget about them.

2. Make Sure They Still Have Airflow
Either transfer your potatoes to a paper or mesh bag, like the Five Two Organic Cotton Reusable Produce Bags or a well-ventilated container. (They will be releasing carbon dioxide and water in the form of vapor, so things can get a little too damp.) If you’d like to keep them in the plastic bag they came in, make sure it’s well-perforated and that the top isn't tightly sealed.

3. Don’t Store Them Next To Your Onions
We touched on this earlier, but let’s get into the nitty gritty. It’s tempting to toss both your potatoes and onions together in a basket in your pantry and be done with it—after all, they both like to be stored basically the same way. But resist temptation, because keeping them together (along with potatoes and avocados, potatoes and bananas, and potatoes and apples) might encourage your potatoes to sprout.

4. Avoid Warm Spots
Even if you don't have a cooler storage location than your kitchen, take care to avoid the warmest spots in the room: Don’t store your potatoes next to the oven, under the sink, or on top of the fridge.

Potato inventory storage Packing App
Potato inventory storage   Packing App for reduced food & fresh produce waste

When warmer than their ideal storage temperature, potatoes will start to sprout, but colder isn’t necessarily better either. In On Food and Cooking, Harold McGee explains that when kept at colder temperatures (i.e. your refrigerator), “their metabolism shifts in a complicated way that results in the breakdown of some starch to sugars.” This means potatoes stored in the refrigerator will taste sweeter over time, and when cooked they are more likely to come out an unappetizing shade of brown.

Signs That Potatoes Have Gone Bad
There are a few easy things to look for if you’re wondering, “have my potatoes gone bad?” Mold, black spots, and soft spots are easily tells. Dr. Benjamin Chapman, an associate professor and food safety specialist at North Carolina State University, also recommends avoiding consuming potatoes that are wrinkled, soft, or shriveled. It’s not necessarily harmful to eat, but think of it like eating any other rotten fruit, such as bananas or apples. The flavor and texture will not be at their best and it’s just all-around unappetizing.

As for green potatoes, Dr. Chapman says that’s a sign that the spuds have been exposed to too much light and will give off a bitter flavor and can even be irritating to the digestive system.


Don’t have much cool space for long-term storage of homegrown spuds? No problem. Author Barbara Pleasant has a few creative ways to store, and preserve, your potatoes.
Flawless potatoes that stay in the ground until the plants’ tops wither are the best candidates for long-term storage. Curing or drying the potatoes for 7 to 10 days further improves their storage potential. If you have clay soil, you may want to lightly rinse off excess soil, then pat the spuds dry. Lay them out in a dim room and cover them with a cloth or towels to block out sunlight. During this time, the skins will dry, small wounds will heal over, and new layers of skin will form where the outer layer peeled or rubbed off. After 3 or 4 days, turn the potatoes over so all sides can dry.

Potato varieties
There are many perfect potatoes, including yellow and pink fingerlings, all-purpose potatoes with blue or yellow flesh, and waxy red potatoes for boiling or roasting. Photo © Kip Dawkins Photography, excerpted from Homegrown Pantry.

Potatoes and sweet potatoes like to spend their dormant period in dry conditions, with some leeway in temperature. A cool, dry basement where temperatures range from 50 to 60° F (10 to 15° C) is ideal, especially for potatoes, which need to be protected from light. I often store early summer potatoes in bins and boxes under my bed, because it’s the best cool, dry, dark place in my house in late summer.

Storing potatoes
If you don’t have a cool basement, look for other cool, dark places to store potatoes, such as an interior closet or under your bed. Photo © Kip Dawkins Photography, excerpted from Homegrown Pantry. 

Potato inventory storage Packing App
Potato inventory storage packing app manages supplier food quality and traceability

Depending on the storage space available to you, you might use half-bushel baskets, small bins with loose-fitting lids (including low-profile under-the-bed bins), cardboard boxes, an old dresser with partially opened drawers, or plastic or wooden crates to store your dormant tubers and onion family crops. Here are a few more resourceful ideas for storage spaces.

Seven Ways to Store Potatoes
Place cured potatoes in a burlap bag, tuck the bag into a plastic storage bin left open a wee bit, and keep in an unheated basement.
Line plastic laundry baskets with newspapers, with potatoes arranged in layers between more newspapers. Place the packed, covered baskets in an unheated garage.
In the basement, make short towers of potatoes by stacking them between layers of open egg cartons. Cover the towers with cloth to protect the potatoes from light.
Place sorted potatoes in small cloth shopping bags that have been lined with plastic bags, and store in a cold space under the stairs. A similar method: Sort different potatoes into paper bags, then place the bags in milk crates to prevent bruising.
Use an old dresser in a cool room or basement for storing potatoes in winter. Leave the drawers partially open for ventilation.
In a shady spot outdoors, place a tarp over the ground and cover it with an inch of loose straw. Pile on potatoes and cover with more straw, a second tarp, and a 10-inch blanket of leaves or straw.
Bury a garbage can horizontally so that its bottom half is at least 12 inches deep in the soil. Place potatoes in the can with shredded paper or clean straw. Secure the lid with a bungee cord, and cover with an old blanket if needed to shade out sun.
cooked dehydrated potatoes
Cooked potatoes dry quickly and save preparation time when you need potatoes for soups or casseroles. Photo © Kip Dawkins Photography, excerpted from Homegrown Pantry.

If you have little or no cool storage, or more culls than keepers, you can dry or can your potatoes for long-term storage. Freezing is not recommended, because the flesh and water separate as potatoes freeze and thaw, with unpleasantly mealy results.

Canning Potatoes
Pressure canning brings out the buttery notes in waxy potatoes, and you can process a batch at 12 pounds of pressure in 35 minutes. The pieces should be blanched before packing them into hot jars, but they need not fit tightly. Fresh boiling water amended with citric acid (to prevent discoloration) is poured over the prepared potatoes before they go into the pressure canner. Note: Potatoes are a low-acid food and cannot be canned in a water-bath or steam canner.