Perhaps you’ve seen them on the Home Shopping Network or in your local grocery store. Debbie Meyers green produce bags claim to prolong the life of your fruits and vegetables helping you save money. But are the claims true? Can these green storage bags really keep your produce fresh longer?
How they work. The manufacturers of the Debbie Meyers Green Produce bags claim that the bags work by absorbing the ethylene glycol that is released by fruits and vegetables.
This ethylene glycol speeds up the ripening, aging, and rotting of produce. By removing the released ethylene glycol, they claim the bags dramatically slow the aging of fruits and vegetables.
The reviews. The concept sounds good but how well do these bags work in the real world? Consumer Reports tested Debbie Meyer Green bags against Ziploc bags and the free plastic bags found in your store’s produce section.
After two weeks of storing apples, asparagus, bananas, basal, berries, broccoli, carrots, grapes, lettuce, and tomatoes, Consumer Reports noted that out of all these foods tested only bananas fared significantly better in the Green bags.
It appears that the other fruits and vegetables did no better or actually did worse in the Green bags than in the free store produce bags or the Ziploc bags. According to Consumer Reports:
“Everything else stored in the two types of regular plastic bags had less mold or none at all compared with food stored in the Green bags”.
Consumer reviews of the Debbie Meyers Green bags on Amazon.com were equally harsh. The product received only 2.5 stars out of 5 stars by consumers who had used it. While some people said that their Green bags worked well, several others reported that the Green bags actually worked worse than regular storage methods by speeding up the aging and rotting of produce.
Part of the problem may have been the moisture that continually collects on the inside of the bags. People who noted a more positive experience with the bags often reported to wiping the inside of the bags with a paper towel daily in order to remove water that builds up inside. Others left a paper towel inside the bags to absorb water.
Reviews of the Green bags at the website infomercialratings.com were no better. This website allows users to rate and comment on products sold on infomercials. Here again the Green bags received a disappointing 2.5 out of 5 stars. As with the Consumer Reports tests and Amazon.com reviews, it appears that the Green bags may have actually sped up the ripening and rotting of many fruits and vegetables.
Our take. Debbie Meyers Green Bags cost $9.95 plus $6.95 for shipping and handling for 20 bags. This works out to well over 50 cents per bag. Based on the disappointing Consumer Reports testing and user ratings at both Amazon.com and infomecialratings.com, I think we’ll have to pass on buying Debbie Meyers Produce Bags.
We’d like to hear from you. What do you think? If you have experience using this product let us know by leaving a comment below.
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