Fresh fruits are best in season with care they'll keep within reason
Fight Food Waste in the home chart no. 7: photographs of hands handling strawberries and pears, and a cartoon of three frightened fruits with a small horned devil above them. The tell is the cartoon, which casts rot as an 'enemy' (a wartime frame applied to a kitchen task); the photographs are plain-folks.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Home Economics
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Home front, Health
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Home Economics. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1151A (NAID 514738).
Text on the object
FRESH FRUITS ARE BEST IN SEASON with care...they'll keep within reason. Spread berries keep dry and cold. That's the way to prevent mold. - Wash and cap just before using Don't pinch, bruise or break our skin.... You'll let the enemy 'rot' come in. - Be gentle with tender skinned fruit. - Spread to keep from bruising. - Keep ripe fruit cold. - Let under-ripe fruit ripen at room temperature to bring out the flavor. [emblem:] FOOD FOR FREEDOM FIGHT FOOD WASTE in the home BUREAU OF HOME ECONOMICS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 7 [imprint:] For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C., Price 25c per set of 10 charts [imprint:] U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1942-O-465386
