Food Storage Guidelines for Consumers [pdf] | Hacker News Reader

Food Storage Guidelines for Consumers [pdf]

vtechworks.lib.vt.edu

17 pointsmoviewise5 comments

“Bread should be stored in the original package at room temperature and used within 5 to 7 days. However, bread stored in the refrigerator will have a longer shelf-life due to delayed mold growth and may be firmer.”

"Tomatoes continue to ripen after harvesting and should be stored at room temperature."

"Removing the tops of carrots, radishes, and beets prior to refrigerator storage will reduce loss of moisture and extend shelf-life."

One counterintuitive food storage tip is never put hot food directly in your fridge or freezer. Instead, leave it uncovered in your kitchen until it cools to room temp, then move it to your fridge.

The food will cool much faster in a well-ventilated room. A refrigerator is mostly an incubator and doesn't actually have much cooling capacity and is more designed to keep things cool, not make them cool. This will extend the shelf life of the food, prevent condensation, and also prevent other items in your fridge or freezer from warming up.

Do you know where the "don't put hot food in the fridge" idea came from? My thought has always been that if my fridge warms up the compressor will fire up and cool it down again.

The fda seems to err very heavily on the "cool immediately" side of things: https://www.fda.gov/food/people-risk-foodborne-illness/tips-...

It's an idea you can easily test and entirely depends on the thermal mass of the item. A well ventilated room can move heat away from food much faster than a fridge can simply because the fridge is heavily insulated and is comparatively poor at circulating air.

A quick experiment you can do is take a big pot of boiling water and put it in your fridge. Wait 5 minutes. The internal temp of fridge will now be hotter than room temp. At this point it's as if every item in your fridge is now sitting out in the sun. Every item is in the danger zone until the fridge cools that entire pot, which can take a few hours.

You don’t need to throw away food that’s been at room temperature for 2 hours (unless it’s a commercial kitchen). And cooking meat to the described temperatures leaves you with dry ruined meats

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