Buying fresh potatoes by the bag is usually more economical than buying individual spuds. Raw potatoes are also versatile, nutritious, and last a long while, so it's a good idea to purchase them en masse to ensure they're always on hand. But if you refrigerate potatoes, that's a bad idea.
Fresh potatoes are at the start of plenty of delicious side dishes—creamy mashed potatoes and potato gratin, just to name a few—but storing raw spuds in the fridge can do more harm than good. We explain why you shouldn't store potatoes in the fridge, and how to store them safely and effectively.
Why You Shouldn’t Refrigerate Potatoes
The decision to refrigerate potatoes could cost you in two significant ways.
Deteriorated Taste and Texture
Refrigerated potatoes develop an unnatural flavor and texture due to changes in their sugar content. During refrigeration, an enzyme in potatoes turns its natural sugar—sucrose—into glucose and fructose. This chemical reaction shifts a potato's taste and texture toward sweet and gritty, which—while not harmful to your health—can ruin a recipe.
Creation of a Potentially Cancer-Causing Compound
When refrigerated potatoes are cooked at high temperatures—whether baking, frying, or roasting—they can create a potentially dangerous chemical. High temperatures cause the glucose and fructose developed in cold potatoes to combine with an amino acid (asparagine) to produce the chemical acrylamide.
Acrylamide
This natural chemical is typically found in things you’re unlikely to eat or ingest, such as paper, adhesives, construction materials, and cigarette smoke. Created by the conversion of naturally occurring glucose and fructose, small amounts of acrylamide are also found in French fries, potato chips, coffee, and foods made from grains, including toast and cookies.
Research suggests acrylamide may cause cancer: specifically kidney, endometrial, and ovarian cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, the strongest evidence comes from animal studies, and human studies have been inconclusive. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says the chemical is “likely to be carcinogenic to humans.”
How to Reduce Acrylamide
“It isn't possible to stop acrylamide being produced or to remove it from foods once it has been produced,” according to the United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency (similar to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration). The FSA and like-minded U.S. organizations continue to research acrylamide to understand how and when it develops and how to reduce levels when it does occur.
This research has led to a few key understandings. These tips from the National Institute of Environmental Health Science may help you limit exposure to potentially dangerous acrylamide:
- Fry foods at temperatures below 338°F. Hotter temperatures incite the conversion of sugars into acrylamide.
- Don’t overcook fried, baked, or roasted foods: Cook to a golden-yellow color, not golden brown.
- Soak potatoes that have been refrigerated in water for 30 minutes. This causes some of the sugars to leach out into the water. Be sure to drain and pat dry the potatoes before cooking.
- Cook other foods that may develop acrylamide to their lowest point. Toast should be lightly toasted, for example.
The Best Way to Store Potatoes
For the sake of your potato dishes and your health, keep your raw potatoes out of the fridge. Instead, follow these steps to safely store spuds for up to 6 months.
Inspect for Damage
Inspect raw potatoes for damage—from pests, handling, or disease—and choose only perfect potatoes for storage. For less-than-perfect potatoes, cut off and discard their bad parts, and use the good parts right away.
Choose the Right Container
Place pristine raw potatoes in a cardboard box, paper bag, mesh bag, or basket to ensure good ventilation. Often, the bags that potatoes come in from the grocers are suitable for storage as long as they're not plastic. Even if a plastic bag has air holes in it, the plastic deters air circulation and shortens the potatoes' shelf life.
Find the Right Location
Store potatoes in a cool, humid, and dark place. The ideal temperature range—45 to 50 F—is warmer than a fridge but cooler than room temperature.
If you don't have a root cellar (and who does these days?), an unheated basem*nt is the perfect spot for storing potatoes. An insulated garageor shed is another option for storing potatoes during the winter. Short of those locations, a pantry or kitchen drawer will do.
Keep It Dark
Besides the refrigerator, another wrong location for storing potatoes is on the kitchen counter or any other place subject to light. Potatoes that get too much light tend to turn green, the result of chlorophyll production. While chlorophyll is good, this process also produces glycoalkaloids, which are healthy in small amounts but toxic in large quantities, potentially causing headaches, nausea, and diarrhea.
Tubers with a high concentration of glycoalkaloids, particularly solanine, "taste bitter, and can be harmful if eaten in large quantities," according to the USDA. "To be safe, it is best to not eat the green part of tubers." Short of discarding the entire potato, they advise to just cut away any green parts, which indicate a concentration of solanines.
Keep Potatoes From Comingling With Onions
Anyplace you find to store potatoes may be the wrong place if they're right next to your onions. Potatoes and onions have the same storage requirements—cool, well-ventilated, and dark—so storing them side-by-side seems logical, but no.
Onions emit ethylene gas, which speeds up the ripening process and can cause nearby potatoes to rot and spoil more quickly. Conversely, potatoes’ high moisture content can cause onions to turn brown and mushy.
Fortunately, you don't need to knock down walls for a pantry expansion to store both potatoes and onions. Separate drawers in the kitchen or a few feet of distance between them in the basem*nt is all you need to keep both root crops stored happily.
Don't Forget About Them
Check on your stored potatoes regularly and discard any you find that are soft or shriveled before they cause more potatoes to go bad. If apotato has sprouted, it's safe to eat as long as the potato is firm to the touch and not shriveled. Just be sure to remove the sprouts before cooking.
