During the hot months what should I do to keep fruit and veggies from spoiling? and how long can cooked/prepared foods stay in the fridge? I am new to this kind of climate.
I may well be a bit of an idiot here, but won’t they keep the same amount of time as back home if you put them into a fridge? Say, back home you keep fruit and veg at 5 degrees - set the fridge at this temperature and it should keep. Am I missing something?
Maybe…I am not sure. I know that in Shanghai, food tended to spoil faster in the summer than in the winter - I was told because of the humidity. Not all food will hold up to refrigeration.
Yeah, seems like it shouldn’t be any different for things in the fridge. It’s crazy humid all year round here anyway.
For everything else though, things will spoil faster. I try to just keep everything in the fridge. And I mean everything - things that you wouldn’t think would spoil (oil? whole grain flour?) will if you leave them out during the summer (especially if you go out of town and leave your place un-air-conditioned for a while). This also keeps it out of the reach of bugs. Bread gets moldy much faster in the summer (like in two days), so I’ll put some in the freezer so I’m not racing against the clock. Spices and such seem to die really fast as well - I now keep them in the freezer. Basically, in my house, everything that’s not sealed or that will be around longer than a week or two goes in the fridge or freezer. But I do the travel and leave apartment un-air-conditioned think a LOT during the summer, and I’ve had ant issues, so maybe I’m more paranoid than most 
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Buy small amounts fresh, every day or two, e.g. at the wet market. Keep things in the fridge. Don’t keep cooked things more than a couple days in the fridge.
I’ve lived the last one and a half years without a fridge, 7-11 is down stairs for cold drinks, milk, snacks,Wellcome is across the street for other food … eateries galore, anything within walking distance and every day fresh food … Just buy what you eat and need.
Now that I have a fridge again I have more spoiled food than before, because you buy stuff and forget about it …
But to answer your question … it’s impossible that cooked food spoils faster in fridge set at the right temperature and checked that it’s the right temperature, in summer than in winter … the only difference is the cooling down time for your food that can make the difference … if you let your food out longer in summer to cool down it has more time to accumulate bad bugs, never ever put hot food in your fridge as it brings the temperature and humidity up inside the fridge.
if I vacuum seal (using a home seal-a-meal type machine) will that help prolong the life of fruits, veggies and cooked things?
Be careful about vacuum sealing. Make sure what you seal is promptly refrigerated or frozen, and ideally, cook it (again) afterwards (destroying any toxin) then you should be okay. The botulinum bacterium creates its toxin in anaerobic conditions, which is exactly the conditions that vacuum sealing creates. Normal cooking temps don’t kill the spores either. So the worst thing is to store uncooked, fermenting stuff, raw stuff or even cooked stuff in a vacuum at room temp. and then eat it without further, adequate cooking.
Thanks! I have much to think about.