With warmer weather approaching, now’s a good time to get rid of anything that’s been in your fridge too long – and to give the fridge a good clean.
You can’t always tell if a food is spoiled by its smell or appearance … so if you’re in doubt, toss it.
Start by taking everything out of the fridge. Wash surfaces with hot soapy water and dry them with a clean towel or paper towels. Defrost any ice from the freezer and clean off any dust from the coils on the back of an older fridge. This will help it run more efficiently.
As you put everything back, check the use-by and best-before dates and throw out anything that’s expired or been open for too long.
Temperature control
Keep your fridge at 2-4°C. This stops harmful bacteria (which cause food poisoning) from multiplying. It’s also the best temperature for storing perishable foods.
Tip: Your food may tell you if the temperature of your fridge needs tweaking. Meat and dairy products go off quicker if it’s too warm. Too cold means leafy greens freeze and turn into a jelly-like mess.
You can buy fridge thermometers at hardware stores and some kitchenware stores. Or you can leave an ordinary thermometer in a glass of water in the fridge overnight and take a reading when you first open the door the next morning. The fridge temperature can be warmer at the top of the fridge than the bottom, so place the thermometer on a middle shelf to get an average reading.
If your fridge isn’t close to the recommended range, follow the instructions in your fridge manual on how to adjust the temperature. Only adjust in small steps, and only make one adjustment a day.
Use a fridge-freezer thermometer to check the freezer temperature. The temperature should be at least -18°C for longer-term storage (more than a couple of weeks) of frozen food.
Seal check
The seals on the door prevent cool air escaping. So make sure they fit tightly against the door – and that they don’t have cracks.
Tip: Wait until it’s dark, then put a lit torch inside the fridge and turn all the room lights off. If you can see light around the seal, it needs replacing.
Keeping it cool
Follow these tips to keep your fridge at the correct temperature:
- Defrost food in the fridge. This will help keep the fridge cooler and stop any flies (or pets) from getting at your food.
- Cooling hot foods slightly before refrigeration will help avoid raising the temperature of other stored foods.
- Avoid overloading your fridge. Overloading means the cold air won’t circulate properly – so it won’t keep your food nice and cold.
What’s in a date?
Use-by dates are about food safety. The date’s determined by the time required for the pathogens in food to grow to levels that might cause food poisoning. As long as the food is stored correctly and isn't opened, it should be safe to eat before its use-by date. After the use-by date, a food can't legally be sold and shouldn't be eaten.
Best-before dates are about food quality. Food can be sold and eaten after its best-before date, as long as it’s been stored according to the instructions on the label. But it may have lost quality and some nutritional value.
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AN EMPTY FRIDGE IS MORE EXPENSIVE TO KEEP COOL THAN A FRIDGE THAT IS PROPERLY LOADED, BUT WITH PLENTY OF VENTILATION...
USING BOTTLES OF WATER TO FILL EMPTY SHELVES PROVIDES A MORE STABLE THERMAL ENVIRONMENT
A handy hint for de-icing the freezer, this makes the job less of a chore...
After the job of de-icing is done, dry off the freezer walls with a clean cloth. Then put some glycerine on a clean, dry cloth wipe the inside of the freezer with it, the object of the excerise being to have a thin layer of glycerine over all of the inside wall of the freezer. It wont stop the ice forming, but next time you have to tackle the job you will find the ice falls away with very little effort. I always use a plastic scraper (got one from the Red Cross for the car this year, and works wonderfully on the freezer!)
This hint came from my mother-in-law many years ago, and it works really well.
If the glycerine is a little thick, warming the bottle gently in a cup of hot water will make it a bit runnier, and easier to apply. (Have nuked it in the microwave to warm it up, however be VERY, VERY careful as it will overheat quickly in a microwave, so very short bursts of no more than 6 seconds should be used.)