#FoodWasteFriday: Fridge Organization
Image and text based on https://greatist.com/eat/ultimate-way-organize-your-fridge#why-refrigerate
Refrigerating and freezing food has been around for thousands of years. The ancient Mesopotamians dug pits, lined them with straw and sand and filled them with mountain snow which kept meats from spoiling for two to three weeks. In the 1600s ice houses began springing up across Europe, buildings with a thatched roof that sat partially underground. Later in the mid-1800s the invention of the icebox reinvented cold storage until the first production of mechanical refrigerators and freezers in the 1920s.
Today, mastering the art of refrigerator organization will help your food stay fresh longer, and help you save on groceries. The temperature within the fridge varies depending on close it is to the cooling element. This helps you to be strategic in placing food for freshness. Refrigerators should stay at 40º F (4.4º C) or lower, and freezers should be at a setting of 0º F (-17.7º C).
We’ll look at each section of the refrigerator to see what should, and shouldn’t, be stored there.
Upper shelves
The upper shelves of the fridge have the most consistent temperatures, while the lower shelves are coldest. One pro strategy used in restaurant kitchens is to place foods that do not need cooking near the top of the fridge. This includes leftovers, drinks, and ready-to-eat foods like tortillas, hummus, and deli meats. You can also keep herbs fresh by placing them upright in a vase or jar with water and loosely covering it with a plastic bag. You’ll also want to keep berries up here for easy access (see the crisper section for more berry useful info).
Lower shelves
The lower shelves are your best bet for raw meat, eggs, seafood, and other dairy. They need to be stored at the coldest temperature. Keep meat in its original packaging, and place it on a plate or in an improvised bin that receives regular cleaning.
Overall: Don’t crowd your shelves too much. Unlike the freezer, the fridge shouldn’t be totally packed. Cold air needs to flow here. If it can’t, you’ll get inconsistent temperatures with pockets of heat and warmth — no-nos when it comes to preserving food.
Crisper drawers
The purpose of crisper drawers is to maintain moist conditions that help preserve fruits and vegetables. But don’t make the mistake of jumbling all your produce together in a fruit and veg free-for-all — there’s a method to the madness.
Many fruits, including apples, peaches, plums, pears, and cantaloupes produce ethylene, a chemical that helps them to ripen. Unfortunately, this can also promote ripening in other plants, causing vegetables to go yellow, limp, or even sprout. For this reason, keep veggies in one drawer and fruits in another.
It goes without saying that you should wash fruits and veggies before eating them. However, too much moisture can cause foods to flip from ripe to rotten before you can get your antioxidants on. And that helps no one. The goal is to wash fruits and veggies when it’s convenient, but not so far in advance that they’re likely to spoil before you eat them.
When washing fruits, remove extra moisture by draining them in a colander, blotting them with paper towel, or using a salad spinner.
Berries are particularly fragile, so handle them with care and gobble them within a day or 2 of washing. (Storing them on the top shelf of the fridge will help with that.)
Once you’ve given your grub a wash, put any greens and herbs in a plastic bag or container with a square of paper towel to soak up excess moisture and everything else in clean (and preferably clear) containers.
Put the containers back in the crisper for longer-term storage or on the top shelf where you’re more likely to see them and eat them up quickly.
The doors
Doors are the warmest part of the fridge and should be reserved for foods that are most resistant to spoiling. Keep condiments, juices, and other foods that can stand up to temperature fluctuations here. Since fridge doors can get warm, particularly when they’re opened regularly, eggs and dairy shouldn’t go here.
On top of the fridge
Even if your kitchen is tiny and that space feels super convenient, it’s not a smart idea. To regulate cold temps inside, the fridge’s condenser coil pumps warm air out, and that heat rises around the appliance’s cabinet.
The best use of this space? Store appliances, supplies like paper towels, or a stack of cookbooks. It doesn’t matter if they get warm.
To fridge or not to fridge?
One of the tougher questions is figuring out whether something goes in the fridge in the first place. Certain foods don’t belong in the fridge. Tomatoes, for example, will turn mealy and odorless in the fridge — keep them comfy at room temperature. They’ll be fine.
Onions, squash, and potatoes do best in a cooler environment with low moisture, so store them in a dark cupboard or other place outside of the fridge. Avocados and many fruits are just fine being left on the counter to ripen, but also can go in the fridge to slow the process down if you need them to hold their proverbial horses. Herbs can be kept in the fridge or in a vase on the countertop if they’ll be used within a few days.
Some of these tips are practical hacks. Others are psychological tricks to make sure you eat healthy foods first.
Either way, using your fridge to its fullest capacity can make cooking more fun and stress-free (because you’ll know where everything is) and help you make the most of this often energy-heavy appliance!
