Fruits and vegetables can be expensive, and if you don't eat them right away you might as well say you're throwing your hard-earned money away.

But there's a product that claims it can help your produce last longer and save you money. They’re called Debbie Meyer Green Bags.

They’re widely advertised on television and are sold for $9.95 plus shipping and handling. For that price you get 20 reusable bags that are supposed to remove the harmful gasses that speed up the spoiling process. But NewsChannel5 anchor Kimberly Gill wanted to know: Does it really do that?

Gill went to the Westside Market to put the bags to the test.

Theresa and Mark Steele sell fruits and veggies at the Westside Market and have been in the produce business for more than 20 years.

They said most fruits and vegetables stay fresh from five days to a week. The Steeles had never heard of the Debbie Meyer Green Bags nor do they endorse the product. But they were willing to give us a hand and let us use their fresh produce for our experiment.

So we put some mushrooms, tomatoes, bananas and strawberries in separate Green Bags, and then stored the same produce without the Green Bags.

We left the bananas out and refrigerated everything else. After just five days, the produce started to ripen. But there was no real difference between our samples in the Green Bags and the ones that were left out. Again, we did our experiment for five days and we weren't that impressed.

We talked to produce experts at local grocery stores as well as the Steeles from Westside Market. They all said you don't need to spend your money on green bags and that the key to making produce last longer is knowing how and where to store it.

Here are some suggestions we found about how to store fruits and vegetables so that they last longer.

Celery – wrap tightly in aluminum foil and store it in the crisper in the fridge.

Leafy greens – wash in cold water, cut off the heads and outer leaves. Soak for five minutes. Drain, then wrap in paper towels, place in a loose plastic bag and store in the crisper drawer.

Tomatoes - don't refrigerate since it will cause them to lose flavor and texture. Keep them stem-side down on the counter (or on a plate) and use quickly.

A blogger on Yahoo offered this suggestion for onions: Get a clean pair of panty hose and cut off one leg. Drop an onion into the toe of the stocking and tie a knot above it. Drop in another onion and tie another knot. Continue until you have a long stocking filled with onions. Hang in a cool dark place where air can circulate. They will keep for a month or more.

Potatoes – can be refrigerated, but they are best stored in a paper bag in a cool dark place. Don't put them next to the onions and don't store them in a plastic bag. They need to breathe and they need to be dark or they will sprout.

Fruit - refrigerate most fruits and wash right before you use them.

Carrots - put them in a loose plastic bags with some holes in it, in the crisper drawer. If they get wet they will rot and if they get dry they will wilt.

And here are some tips from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Web site:

• To retain quality and nutritive value, stock only the kinds and amounts of food you can store properly. Proper storage means maintaining a clean refrigerator and freezer.
• Avoid overcrowding the refrigerator
• Arrange items so cold air can circulate freely
• To reduce dehydration and quality loss, use freezer wrap, freezer-quality plastic bags, or aluminum foil over commercial wrap on meat and poultry that will be stored in the freezer for more than two months.

For more tips on storing produce, you can go to this government-funded Web site, www.uga.edu.

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