Generally, to keep foods fresh longer, we wrap them up and place them in the refrigerator. Sometimes, we don't give much thought to how things should actually be stored or whether we're doing it properly. As a result, you are more likely to get food poisoning at home than when eating out at a restaurant where health codes are strictly enforced. Some of the biggest food safety violations have to do with the refrigerator, the catch-all of food storage. Here are a few tips to keep you, and your family, a little safer.
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The refrigerator should be kept at, or below, 40°F. Keep in mind that the temperature can rise when the door is opened frequently and if the fridge is overcrowded and air cannot circulate.
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Store raw meat that you won't be eating right away in the freezer, not the refrigerator. Defrost it in the fridge.
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Milk is good for about 10 days past its "sell-by" date, although if it is left out to warm up, it can go bad before that time. It is better to keep it in the main part of the refrigerator than on the door.
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Fruits and vegetables can be stored at the same temperature they are stored in the store, though cut produce should be refrigerated and eaten within a few days.
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Hard cheeses can be stored, wrapped, for several weeks. If mold develops, the affected area and about 1/2-inch around it should be removed; the rest is safe to eat. Do not eat soft cheeses or dairy products, including cream cheese and yogurt, that have molded.
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Fresh eggs will last at least 3 or 4 weeks in the fridge, but hard-cooked eggs will only last one week. You can always check your eggs for freshness if in doubt. Eggs blend better with other ingredients in recipes for baked goods and get more volume when beaten if they are held at room temperature for 20 or 30 minutes before using.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-22-2006 @ 12:44PM
JoAnna said...
Food poisoning's a nasty thing. You get real sick within a few hours of eating the spoiled food. I know this is just a brief summary, but there are two things you didn't cover:
You should always mark your leftovers with a date. Give yourself five days to eat stuff you make yourself, two days for restaurant leftovers, because you don't know how old the stuff was when it was served to you, and you probably didn't take it home in a cooler full of ice.
Residential refrigerators are built upside down because those "crisper" drawers are on the bottom. You should store raw foods that won't get cooked, like fruit and salad items, on the TOP shelf. Then cooked, ready-to-reheat food on the middle shelf, and uncooked foods that have to get cooked, like meat/chx/fish, on the bottom shelf. If your casserole drips in your meat, you'll cook the bad germs out, but if your raw meat drips onto your fresh produce, you're going to be eating those things raw, including the bacteria.
P. S. I just renewed my ServSafe certificate: http://chefjoanna.com/blogimg/servsafetest.jpg and (shameless plug) I offer free kitchen advice on my website: http://chefjoanna.com/chefchat.html
Eat safely, kids! Always use a condiment!
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8-22-2006 @ 8:35PM
Becki said...
You could also do yourself a favor by taking a disinfectant wipe to the bottom of milk cartons and other items from the dairy aisle before you even put them in your fridge. Even if places like Trader Joe's with a good reputation, often their refrigerated cabinet shelves are simply not clean and that stuff sticks to the bottom of all those containers like milk cartons.
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8-22-2006 @ 9:56PM
Emma said...
The mould you see on cheese is just the fruiting bodies of the mould. By the time you see the mould it has already spread through out the cheese so just cutting it off is only for aesthetic reasons. A good rule of thumb is that white, green or blue mould on cheese is fine to eat, but black or red/orange mould should be avoided and the whole cheese thrown away.
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8-24-2006 @ 2:19PM
Adam said...
Give your milk a sniff before pouring if it is close to or past the expiration date. It is pretty easy to tell when it has gone bad, and much more plesant to find out with your nose rather than your mouth.
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