Are you refrigerating your food correctly?

Not everyone has completed a Basic Food Hygiene Certificate course during college or employment. So, this infographic from ao.com is actually useful.

AO.com looked at how people use their fridges and the problems arising from incorrect use.

The biggest problems uncovered in the study were found to be:

1.       Holding on to a fridge that is over 10 years old

2.       Not cleaning the fridge frequently enough

3.       Overfilling the fridge

4.       Keeping the fridge at the wrong temperature (above 5 °C)

5.       Storing the wrong foods in the fridge

6.       Putting foods fit for refrigeration in the wrong part of the fridge

7.       Keeping leftovers in the fridge for too long

8.       Putting hot foods in the fridge before they’ve cooled

Spokeperson for ao.com, Yossi Erdman said: “When you know that at ideal temperatures some food poisoning bugs can multiply every 10 minutes, it’s scary to think that people are still putting warm food in the fridge. If you do the maths, this means that in just under two hours one thousand germs can become one million germs.  That is why it is important to keep foods that need to be chilled in a fully functioning refrigerator.

“It’s astonishing to think that despite the humble refrigerator having undergone a huge transformation over the last decade – becoming more energy efficient, utilising new technologies to keep foods fresher for longer and boasting features, such as antibacterial wall linings to prevent the formation of bacteria – over half of UK households are proudly hanging onto fridges that are over a decade old.  This is not only putting their health at risk but it’s also got to be costing them money in terms of food waste and energy consumption.”