Home › Home & Kitchen › Kitchen & Dining › Storage & Organization › Food Containers How to Store Potatoes Published: July 9, 2026 · Updated: July 9, 2026
Keep potatoes in a cool, dark, dry, airy place — a paper or mesh bag in a cupboard — not in the fridge, where the cold turns their starch to sugar so they brown and sweeten oddly when cooked. Keep them out of light so they don't turn green, store them away from onions, and don't wash them until you're ready to use them.
Recommended Cool, dark, dry and airy — not the fridge, out of the light, and apart from onions — Potatoes keep for weeks or months when stored cool, dark, dry and ventilated, ideally around 7–10°C, like a cupboard, cellar or a paper or mesh bag that lets air move. Darkness matters because light (and warmth) makes potatoes turn green and sprout; the green is chlorophyll, but it signals solanine, a bitter compound that's best cut away or, if widespread, thrown out. Keep them out of the fridge: below about 4°C the cold converts their starch into sugars, which makes them taste sweet and turn dark when fried or roasted (and produces more acrylamide), though a cool room is fine. Don't wash potatoes before storing, because the extra moisture encourages rot and mould — brush off the dirt and wash them only when you're about to cook. Store them away from onions and most fruit: onions and ripening fruit give off moisture and ethylene gas that make potatoes sprout and spoil faster. Give them some airflow rather than a sealed bag, check now and then, and remove any that go soft or sprouting before they affect the rest. A few sprouts or small green patches can be cut off, but discard any potato that's very green, shrivelled or foul-smelling.
