There are many whys and wherefores as to how food should be kept in a fridge.
There are many whys and wherefores as to how food should be kept in a fridge.
A friend of mine, who holidays with the same family every year, recently revealed that their favourite cross-generational after-dinner game is the self-titled (and somewhat tedious- sounding) “In the fridge/Out of the fridge”.
While one family member shouts out “Ketchup”, for example, the rest of the group have to simultaneously yell either “In the fridge” or “Out of the fridge” then argue (very unscientifically) their case. “Trust me,” she says, “it can get very heated!”
I don’t think I’ll be swapping charades any time soon, but the rules of filling your fridge can get confusing. Earlier this year the Food Standards Agency changed its advice on storing potatoes. For many years it had advised people to keep potatoes out of the fridge because of the health risks.
Lab tests had found that chilling potatoes led to the formation of additional sugars, which can then convert into potentially carcinogenic acrylamide when the potatoes are fried, roasted or baked. But a recent study suggests acrylamide formation isn’t a problem after all, so, says the FSA, you can keep them in the fridge after all.
Milk, meanwhile, might be better stored not in the fridge door but in the back of the fridge, argues dairy farmer Ceri Cryer, of Brinkworth Dairy in Wiltshire, to avoid it getting too warm and going off too quickly.
One thing’s for sure, it’s not a magic cabinet. To start with, different foods will have different ideal temperatures. For lots of ingredients, like cucumbers for instance, larder temperature, around 10-12C, is much more appropriate, but few of us have the luxury of an old-fashioned larder these days.
It helps to know where the coolest and warmest areas of your fridge are. Which?, the UK consumer association, recommends using a fridge thermometer, but who’s got one of those? You should find that the warmest spots in the fridge are in the door, followed by the top shelf, while the coldest place is at the bottom in the “salad drawer”.
While we’re on the subject of salad drawers, they may not be the ideal place to store salad as the temperature can dip below zero – effectively reducing your lettuce to frozen gloop. So despite the not-so-helpful manufacturer’s labelling, it’s best to keep in a (slightly) warmer spot higher up in the fridge. Sometimes it pays not to follow the instructions.
The other issue with fridges is that they are dry. Most fruit and veg is best stored at 90-95 per cent relative humidity, but in home fridges it’s much lower – as little as 35 per cent in some cases. No wonder spinach wilts and cheese goes hard and cracks. Vegetable drawers are often equipped with a little vent with a sliding cover – keep these closed if you want the humidity higher; great for veg but generally not so good for fruit.
Also worth noting: ignore the Bake Off contestants who stick their hot bakes in the fridge or freezer to cool. This is a terrible idea, and not just because hot food cools much faster in a draught by an open window or an electric fan. Anything above room temperature that’s put in the fridge (or freezer) sends the internal temperature spiralling up. Bad for your food and your bills.
Turns out you don't need to keep all your sauces in the fridge. Photo / Getty Images
1. Care for your condiments
Mustard loses its heat at room temperature, so if you value that delectable punch, stick it in the fridge. Ketchup and brown sauce is fine kept in the cupboard, as long as you’re planning to use it within a couple of months, and who wants chilled sauce on their sausages? Mayonnaise is another matter though, as the lower sugar content and added egg make it vulnerable to bacteria, so keep it in the fridge.
Tahini, the hummus lover’s staple, can stay in a cupboard if you are getting through a jar in less than a month, but any longer and it may go rancid, so keep it in the fridge: it’ll go hard, so you may need to warm the jar in a bowl of hot water before spooning it out.
Some of the smart jars of harissa, pesto and tapenade do need to stay in the fridge once the jars have been opened, breaking the vacuum seal. After you’ve used a bit, flatten the surface with the back of a teaspoon, then top with a little oil to form an airtight seal and they’ll last longer.
2. Soak your lemons
Lemons go hard quickly in the fridge or the fruit bowl, but if you keep them submerged in a jar of water in the fridge they stay juicy for a month. Limes work too, although they lose their green colour after a couple of weeks. Change the water every few days. According to White, the same method works with carrots too.
3. Dairy dos and don’ts
Milk, which most of us get through fairly quickly, is generally fine in the door, but keep in mind that there are plenty of factors that will shorten its life: is it a busy fridge, opening and shutting all the time, letting warm air in? Does the family regularly take the bottle out for tea and then leave it on the work surface for half a day? There are plenty of things you can do with spoiled milk, but to lengthen the time before it turns you can always move it to the back of the fridge. Cream is better off in the main compartment of the fridge, as is yoghurt and cream cheese such as mascarpone. Cheese likes the warmer spot at the top of the door, which is often handily equipped with a lid to keep the moisture in.
It won’t really work though, so keep it wrapped in waxed paper or beeswax wrap, not clingfilm. The exception is parmesan, a very dry cheese, which is best wrapped in foil to stop it turning into a rock. Alternatively, keep the wrapped cheese in a box in the body of the fridge, but leave the lid slightly open.
It might be time to get rid of the fruit bowl. Photo / Supplied
4. Ditch the fruit bowl
The home fruit bowl is a bit of a curse. Sure, it looks nice, but it makes no sense as fruits have different respiration rates, meaning they ripen at different speeds, giving off ethanol as they do, which may speed the ripening of other fruit. We all know not to put bananas in the fruit bowl for this reason, but the same is true of other fruits too.
Chris White of fruit and veg producers’ journal Fruitnet recommends keeping different types of fruits in different bowls – citrus in one, apples and pears in another, for example. Store most fruit, except bananas, in the fridge (the drawer is perfect, or on the shelf above) and take out just what you need every couple of days.
The bottom drawer is probably too cold for veg: try the shelf or drawer above, and always store delicate leaves in a sealed plastic bag. I like the reusable green Stayfresh Longer bags from Lakeland (£7.49 for 20), but any plastic bag will do.
6. Protect your potatoes
Potatoes may be plentiful now, but this could change. According to industry insiders, delays in supermarket contracts and low prices meant many farmers didn’t plant potatoes last year, preferring higher value wheat instead. It means that in six to eight weeks we could be seeing shortages not just of potatoes but other veg such as cauliflowers, cabbages and leeks.
Storing them in the fridge is now recommended, and farm refrigeration experts point out that the potatoes sold in supermarkets are stored at around 2C to keep them looking perfect – even though this means they don’t make the best chips, because of additional sugar formed by chilling.
7. Chill onions for tear-free chopping
Which? recommends keeping onions out of the fridge, as do WRAP who say they tend to sprout if kept chilled too long. As for me, I’m sticking with the fridge for onion storage, and making sure I use them quickly. The reason? Cold onions are less likely to make you cry when you chop them.
There is a way to chop an onion without your eyes watering. Photo / 123RF
8. Flip your meat and fish
I keep my meat in the bottom drawer of the fridge – yes, the one marked “salad”. It’s the coldest part of the fridge, and meat needs lower temperatures than salad. Being right at the bottom – not to mention in a box – there’s no risk of any “juices” dripping on to other foods either. Anything wrapped in plastic needs unwrapping: I rewrap in greaseproof paper, and close the vent on the drawer if I’m worried about it drying out, although most meat browns better if it is drier anyway.
Fish goes in the bottom drawer too, which takes a bit of juggling to avoid fishy flavour cross-contamination. I’ll put it in a plastic box with the lid slightly ajar: it’s never there for more than a day anyway.
A recent article by Which? says that cucumber goes mushy if kept in the fridge. I’ve never noticed this, and it goes against waste charity WRAP’s advice to store cucumbers in the fridge. But it directed me to advice from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences which said that “when cucumbers are stored for over three days at temperatures below 10C, they’ll get cold injury: wateriness, pitting and faster decay”.
Mind you, cucumbers go off pretty fast out of the fridge too, so your best bet is to pop the cucumber in an upper drawer or shelf still wrapped in its plastic, if it came like that, or in a plastic bag, as that’ll help stop it drying out.
10. Keep tomatoes tasty
Tomatoes lose flavour if kept in the fridge too long, and they can go mealy too. J Kenji Lopéz-Alt, food guru and author of The Food Lab, recommends taking off their stems (and that beautiful vine you paid extra for) and laying them stem-side down on a plate to stop them drying out and going wrinkly. Then just allow them to ripen at room temperature.
If you don’t manage to eat them all when they reach the perfect deep red, then put them in the fridge – better a chilled tomato than a mouldy one. Giving them a couple of hours to come back to room temperature before eating will do much to repair the damage anyway.
11. Avoid the mouldy jam lid
Back in the day, jam and marmalade never used to live in the fridge, as the sugar level was high enough to preserve it. Then again, my mother thought nothing of scraping off a bit of mould and plonking the jar back on the table. The reality is, unless you’re scrupulous about using a dedicated jam spoon, tiny crumbs and traces of butter find their way into jams and they’ll go mouldy.
Factor in that modern jams may be made with less sugar, making them a friendlier place for mould spores, and the fridge is probably the best place. Honey, however, tends to crystallise if it’s kept in the fridge and it has antibacterial properties anyway, so it’s fine in the cupboard. Maple syrup has a lower sugar content so it may ferment if kept too long in the cupboard – it’s expensive, so pop it in the fridge door.
I’ve seen advice to stick herbs in a vase of water and stand them in the fridge door – pretty, but it won’t help them last. Instead wrap washed herbs and leaves in a sheet of kitchen roll to soak up any water that might make them go slimy, before popping them in the plastic bag and sealing it.
13. Oils are trickier than you think
Most cooking oil is fine kept out of the fridge; olive oil solidifies in the fridge so it’s best stored in a cupboard. Nut oils are a very different story: these tend to be used in small amounts, a teaspoonful of toasted sesame oil here, a tablespoonful of walnut oil there. In a warm kitchen they can go rancid in a month, but stored in the door of the fridge they’ll last indefinitely. My fridge clinks satisfyingly as I open it, and I’ve got some recherché oils that I bought years ago (tomato seed, anyone?), which are still completely fine.
14. Eggs can work both ways
Ignore that dinky egg holder that came with the fridge. Eggs are robust little packages which keep well out at room temperature until their sell-by date. This is stamped on all British Lion eggs (most of the eggs sold in shops), and it’s four weeks after they were laid. Sure, they will last an extra month in the fridge, but cold eggs crack if you try to boil them and curdle cake mixtures, which makes for leaden bakes – and who has the forethought to take eggs out of the fridge to come to room temperature hours ahead of using them?
The exception, of course, is if you use eggs only occasionally and can’t get through half a dozen before their sell-by date is up. Be aware, though, that it’s best not to keep eggs in the fridge and then change your mind and put them back on the worktop. Eggs have a clever protective barrier or “cuticle” on the surface of the shell that is dissolved by water.
As soon as chilled eggs come out of the fridge, condensation starts to form on the eggshell; the cuticle is destroyed, so the shell becomes porous and bacteria can get in. So wherever you keep them, in the fridge or out, commit. Fun fact: in the US, eggs are washed before sale, meaning they have to be kept in the fridge.
