Potatoes
Stored cool, dark and airy, potatoes keep for 2 to 3 months. Do not refrigerate them — cold turns their starch into sugar.
Why storage is everything
Potatoes keep surprisingly long when the conditions are right: cool (ideally 40 to 50 °F / 4–10 °C), dark, dry and airy. In a cool pantry or basement they last for months. The most common mistake is the fridge: below about 40 °F the starch converts to sugar — the potatoes taste sweet, and frying or roasting them can produce more of the unwanted compound acrylamide.
Light is the second enemy. Stored in the light, potatoes form chlorophyll and turn green — a visible sign that the bitter, mildly toxic compound solanine is rising too. So potatoes belong in a dark, breathable bin, not a sealed plastic bag where moisture builds up and invites rot.
Variety matters too: firm, waxy potatoes generally store a little longer than floury ones, and freshly harvested tubers from late summer keep through winter far better than early-season ones. If you store larger quantities, check the supply every few weeks and remove any soft or sprouting potatoes before they spoil the rest. Even supermarket potatoes benefit from being taken out of the plastic bag straight away and kept loose, cool and dark, rather than left sealed in the bag in a warm kitchen cupboard.
Roughly a third of the world's food is thrown away, and potatoes are among the most-wasted staples. Yet sprouted or slightly green potatoes are often still usable once you cut the affected parts away generously.
Source: FAO / USDAHow do I spot bad potatoes?
Potatoes show clearly when caution is due:
Green means solanine. Cut small green spots away generously; discard heavily greened potatoes.
Snap off short sprouts and use the potato soon. Long, strong sprouts and a shrivelled potato mean it should go.
Mushy, musty-smelling or mouldy potatoes belong in the bin — and should not infect the others.
Shelf life at a glance
Where and how you store them decides between weeks and months:
| Storage | Shelf life |
|---|---|
| Cool basement (40–50 °F), dark | 2–3 months |
| Cool pantry | several weeks |
| Warm kitchen | 1–2 weeks |
| Refrigerator | not recommended (sweet) |
Store them right
The right storage keeps potatoes firm and good for a long time:
Cool and dark — a cool basement or dark pantry is ideal, not the fridge.
Airy, not plastic — a wooden crate or a paper or burlap sack lets moisture escape.
Away from apples and onions — apples give off ripening gas that makes potatoes sprout faster.
Sort regularly — one rotten potato spoils the rest.
Common myths
A few myths surround potatoes:
No — cold turns starch into sugar. Store them cool but not cold.
Not necessarily — snap off short sprouts and use the potato soon. Only discard heavily sprouted, green ones.
Better not — green signals solanine. Cut it away generously or discard the potato.
An old trick says an apple in the potato sack slows sprouting — in fact the evidence is mixed, and the apple's ripening gas can actually age potatoes faster. More reliable are cool, dark storage and sorting out bad ones regularly. A cool, dark basement stays the best spot; if you do not have one, a dark pantry away from the heating will do.