Wrinkled bell peppers are technically still edible. However, veggies lose nutrients when they're noticeably past their prime.
So what happened? You picked peppers for a stir fry, a salad, or a week of lunches. A few days into the week, the ones you've yet to use get wrinkly. The skin that was taut and smooth is now soft and shriveled.
Bell peppers have a high water content—around 92%—and a relatively thin outer skin. That skin is the main barrier between the moisture in the pepper and the dry air in the fridge.
A fridge alone can't preserve produce. Fridges do cold. And cold air is dry air.
In a crisper drawer, moisture migrates through the pepper's skin and into the surrounding air. As the cells lose water pressure, the skin loses its taut firmness and begins to pucker and wrinkle. The flesh inside softens. The pepper goes from smooth and crunchy to wrinkled and yielding.
Cutting up a pepper quickens its moisture loss. The open interior flesh has no barrier at all against dry crisper air. That's why half a pepper stored in a bag deteriorates much faster than a whole one.
These storage steps won't solve the dry air problem in your fridge, but they're a good place to start:
Store whole. Whole peppers lose moisture more slowly than cut ones. If a recipe only calls a partial pepper, store the other half cut-side down in a sealed container. Use diced or sliced bell peppers within two days.
Store unwashed. Surface moisture accelerates bacterial growth. Wash peppers right before you use them.
Store in the crisper drawer set to high humidity. On this vegetable setting, the vents are mostly closed, which limits airflow. This slows the rate at which produce loses water.
Veggies need hydration as well as cold, that's why every fridge needs a Skipper for Fridge Hydration.
Skipper releases purified water vapor into your crisper drawer. Maintaining humidity slows moisture loss through the pepper's thin skin.
The takeaway? Bell peppers that stay firm, smooth, and fresh significantly longer—up to 3x longer than they do in a crisper without Fridge Hydration. Learn more about keeping veggies fresh with Skipper.
Skipper. The mister for your crisper.
Why do bell peppers get soft in the fridge?
They lose moisture over time, which causes them to soften.
How do you keep bell peppers fresh longer?
Store them in a crisper drawer with a Skipper pack. Skipper provides enough moisture to prevent peppers from dehydration and going bad before their time.