A cruise ship chef shares his top tips for making food last longer when you're trying to avoid too many trips to the grocery store

• Many people are currently trying to plan at least a week's worth of meals at a time to avoid too many trips to the grocery store.
• This can get difficult with limited fridge space and fast-spoiling produce.
• So, we asked a cruise ship chef — who is used to planning meals in advance and working with what he has on hand — about his best tips for making food last longer.
• Sanjay Dhall, Carnival Cruise Line's senior director of culinary arts and food operations, advises avoiding processed produce and buying fruit at different stages of ripeness.
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A third of the world is on lockdown. For most people, this means working from home if they can, and limiting their errands to the bare minimum.

In order to venture outside as little as possible, many people are stocking up on food and meal planning for a week or even two at a time.

But with limited fridge space and some fresh produce going bad quickly, this can be a challenge.

For cruise ship chefs, planning far in advance, stocking up on long-lasting items, being creative with produce on the verge of going bad, and working only with what they have on hand is the status quo.

In fact, on cruise ships, which make tens of thousands of meals a day for their thousands of guests, meals are usually planned months in advance.

Sanjay Dhall, senior director of culinary arts and food operations for Carnival Cruise Line, told Insider that food deliveries vary by the size of the ship and the number of guests and crew, but that a week's worth can be anywhere between eight to 20 semi-trucks full of food. Once a ship sets sail, that's what the chef has got to work with.

Dhall, who has worked as a cruise ship chef for 25 years, shares his best tips and tricks for making food last.