Customer Reviews

Rubbermaid 7J93 Produce Saver Square Food Storage Containers Set of 8

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I originally purchased these on a very cynical whim. My mom had tried the "bags" which failed miserably so when I ran across this set I really had very low hopes. Well, here are my results:

So far I've had the same blueberries in one of these containers for THREE WEEKS. I purchased and washed them on July 19th, the day before a dinner party, put them in a Produce Saver bowl and put them in the refrigerator. Some were eaten at the party, many weren't. Today is August 10th and I guess I'm going to have to break down and make muffins with them or something because they're as fresh and plump today as they were 3 weeks ago.
Grapes stay so fresh in the large container (I buy 2 big bags at a time now) that after a week even their stems are still green. The grapes themselves are crisp and cold.
My strawberries lasted for a week the last time before they were finally all eaten. Not sure how long they would hold up as they are pretty popular. I just wash them, drain them, de-stem them and pull out all of the already questionable berries, put them in a medium container (holds about 2 lbs of berries without stems), stuff them in the fridge and walk away. We are just able to reach in and snack on fresh berries whenever we want.
And a big one -- tomatoes. Already sliced or diced tomatoes are nas-tay after they've been refrigerated overnight. I have stored diced tomatoes in the small bowl for a week and a half and they were just as tasty as the day I diced them. Not at all soggy and grainy.
Currently I have one of these sets and an extra medium bowl. It's on my shopping list to get another set ;-) They've already saved me a fortune in fresh produce and I've only had them for about a month! My next experiment will be with bananas.... If my large bowl is ever empty long enough.

If you are like us you have grapes and blueberries in the fridge at all times. Before we were placing them in bowls with paper towels to suck up the moisture.

These containers are fantastic.

Also they are made of Polypropylene so they are BPA free.

I've had a set of these for years (all three sizes, with a second small one bought separately). Given how good the Amazon price is, I just bought another set.

You've got to work with the boxes, and your fridge. If you've got a relatively damp fridge (more common with the side-by-side models, since there is often condensation on the freezer-side wall), make sure the produce is absolutely dry before storing it, or there will eventually be mold. If you have a relatively dry fridge, you might want to add a bit of water to the bottom of the box. What you're storing also matters - leafy greens have lots of surface area to lose water, carrots have a lot less, lemons have almost none (and an oily skin that prevents moisture loss - I actually refrigerate citrus without the lid, just with the grid to prevent mold). If I'm storing really delicate herbs like cilantro or dill, I'll put a damp paper towel over them in the box, or, if I'm feeling Martha Stuart-ish, stick the freshly cut stems through the grid into some water below.

For storing the boxes, not only can you snap the grids to the lids (cha cha cha), both to the inside and the outside, you can also nest a small-medium-large box set with the lids on if you turn over the medium box, and snap the medium grid to the outside of the medium lid, and the small and large grids to the insides of their respective lids.

Someone did some serious engineering work on these. I wish Rubbermaid would come out with a deeper set, since keeping a whole head of lettuce is a lost cause, and maybe also a long version for bakery bread loaves (I already use the big box for round bread). Otherwise, they rock.

(oh, and since nobody else seems to have mentioned it - these are made out of polypropylene, and are made in Malaysia and the USA).

I have had the Produce Saver for about 6 weeks and I find that it does a significant job in keeping Produce fresher as opposed to using the original packaging that the produce came in.

I highly recommend the product for anyone who uses produce on a daily basis and thus buys bulk size items (lettuce, grapes, tomatoes, etc.).

I have worked with food both in top professional kitchens and home kitchens for 20 years. I give this information to add credibility to my knowledge of food storage procedures and containers. My wife purchased these containers approximately 1 year ago. At first I was not to excited about them because we live in an apartment and our refrigerator is not all that great (both small and inefficient.) I like to keep a variety of vegetables and fruits cleaned and prepped that we can use as quick snacks and to use in our daily "kick butt" salad that we both eat for lunch every day. I typically will have enough lettuce cleaned washed and cut for or 4 days at a time, other fruits and veggies can sometimes be in the containers for most of the work week. I have not had a single issue with the quality of any product I placed in these containers. Every time I can be sure that I will have as fresh a product coming out that I put inside, even Julienne (long thin strips) Carrots which I used to cut fresh every time we used them. Carrots seem to dry out and shrivel quicker than most other produce. I really think they are the best containers to store produce I have ever used.

Somehow a medium size container of snap peas accidentally got pushed to the back of refrigerator and left for a very long time. They were washed upon placing them in there but not cut or prepped just washed. After no less than 3 weeks I discovered they had been shoved behind some stuff that doesn't get used all that often and pulled them out in disgust. Before throwing them in the compost out back I opened the container and to my surprise the snap peas were as fresh as the day they went in.They were crisp and bright green, not a brown spot on the whole bunch. I will be honest we didn't eat them because my wife can be a little panicky at times nevertheless, I was impressed beyond belief. Since that experience I have raved about these containers every chance I get.

In response to a couple other reviewers who disseminated negative information I will answer their disapproval. One reviewer suggested that lettuce gets to wet and doesn't hold well. I agree that you wouldn't want to keep delicate greens that are mostly composed of water in any closed container for very long. Like I said above 3 days has never caused any sort of problem but I can see where 7 days and some of the lettuce will not be useable. That is not a problem unique to this product rather any closed container with no way to release the moisture. The other problem that stood out to me had to do with size. Complaining that the little ones are useless. I disagree, there are plenty of uses for containers that small. For instance storing prepped Herbs overnight to use in a meal the following day. Or any garnish that there will not be very much of. Of course you won't fit whole fruits or vegetables in bulk. This again is not a function unique to this product. You can never store more than the volume of the container that is common sense.

I hope this review has helped you make a judgment on this product. If there is something I missed that would be nice to know please comment so I can improve the review. Thanks

I bought these with the expectation that they would be something like those green bags you see on TV, only I wouldn't have to keep buying these because they are reusable more than a few times like the bags.

For the most part, they lived up to the hype. The small inserts for the bottom of each container means that moisture doesn't touch your produce, which does extend its life. This is especially true of very delicate items like lettuce, spinach and berries.

They are a bit pricey for so few, which is why they get only four instead of five stars. You can get many more containers for this price, and wrap them in paper towels or use other methods to gain the advantage that the inserts provide. However, in the long run these will be cheaper, especially if you eat a lot of fresh produce like me.

These are especially good for singles or couples without children who want to buy fresh produce but can never seem to finish a whole bunch of celery or a stalk of broccoli before they go bad. These extend the life just enough to make sure you won't throw bad produce out again.

I am not sure how much better these are compared to other containers as far as keeping veggies fresh. However, I like that they have drainage and are completely clear (and rectangular!). Even if they don't keep things fresh longer, I would still recommend them, especially for fruits, salad greens (large size), fresh herbs (esp small size).

Pros: stack really nicely together in fridge
Drainage
very easy to identify contents
Big size perfect for salad (but you would have to say chop romaine to get it to fit)
Fabulous price as set compared to prices individually

Cons:
Seem short b/c of room that the platform needs
Small size just a tad too small to be really versatile
Availability/QC: long time shipping - ordered two sets - missing 1 lid in 1 set
Lids - weird interior ridge, I can't get mine to snap together, I must be missing something, but I don't intend for them to spend any time in storage anyway
Slightly awkward sizing/limited sizing - they won't fit zucchini, eggplant, squash etc...not long enough , not deep enough to stack several medium size tomatoes

I just wanted to mention that I got some of the other Rubbermaid containers (Easy Find, red lids) and they seem to be interchangeable to me. I saw somewhere that someone had said that they weren't, but I've had no trouble and I don't even know which bottoms go with what lids because they all seem to work just fine.

I haven't used them much but I did put some spinach in one container and it lasted way longer than it ever has when I store it in a regular container. That alone tells me they were a worthy purchase!

these are amazing containers. We stopped wasting produce completely. It keeps everything fresh for so much longer then just fridge drawers or plastic bags with wet paper towels. I store everything there - berries, tomatoes, eggplants, mushrooms, broccoli.
I see people complaining it didn't work for them. The secret is - it won't make your mushy strawberries fresh and nice, but it will keep your perfect produce nearly perfect. You have to buy fresh stuff to begin with. If fruit or vegetable already started to go bad, it won't really stop it from spoiling completely. Buy fresh produce, put it inside of these containers and enjoy it day by day.

These containers are TERRIFIC! I bought the middle-sized container first, and promptly fell in love with the performance of the product. I then purchased a larger set (6 container set, 2 of each size) elsewhere simply because I could not find the same set here.

I LOVE cherry and grape tomatoes, but have a devil of a time keeping them fresh. Same goes for lettuce. I live alone, so produce does not go quickly around here. Now I can open a bag of salad mix, plop it in one of these containers (the 14 cup container holds a whole bag!),and I've still got fresh lettuce for a least a week, maybe two! I've got one in the fridge filled with salad mix, one with cherry tomatoes and a third with chopped celery, onions and green peppers. Normally I'd be rushing to eat all of those veggies up before they went bad, but now I can use them at my leisure. Truly worth every penny.

Cool storage feature too: the grid and lid snap onto the bottom of the container so you can keep them together in storage. Brilliant! I left one at my mom's house when I was visiting (because I was snacking on grape tomatoes on the trip there) and she has been raving about hers too. The best kitchen investment I've made in a good long while!