Fresh berries are a summer staple, but given the rising cost of food, no one wants to let berries go bad before they can enjoy them.
Thankfully, one Instagrammer, Nicole Jaques (@itsnicolejaques), offers an easy solution to keep your berries fresh. All you need is some hot water and a paper towel.
The scoop
In her video, Jaques states this hack "is going to blow your mind." To keep your blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries from mold, you just need to follow these simple steps.
First, boil water to 125 degrees Fahrenheit for strawberries and blackberries (or 140 degrees for blueberries), then drop the berries in the hot water for 30 seconds. This will warm up the berries and kill any existing mold or bacteria.
Next, take the berries out to dry. If you have a salad spinner, you can spin the berries in there. If not, just lay the berries on some paper towels to dry. Once the berries are dry, store them in containers lined with paper towels.
How it's helping
This hack helps consumers preserve their delicate berries, allowing them to enjoy the fruit longer.
Nicole has tested this method and promised that she barely sees mold on her berries afterward. She saw only one in 30 berries with mold, claiming that this method keeps the berries fresh for two and a half weeks.
Berries are one of the quickest fruits to spoil due to their high moisture content and susceptibility to mold. They're also relatively expensive because they're difficult to pick, delicate, and hard to store. So, this hack can save you plenty of money in the long run.
What everyone's saying
There were a lot of berry lovers in the comment section of Nicole's reel.
Some have already found success with this hack, like one commenter who claimed, "[I've] been doing this for years and telling EVERYONE about it."
However, other commenters worried that this hack might not work, as the water might cause the berries "to become soft and mushy."
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