Your fridge is a health hazard

You may think that your bathroom is germ prone, and so you give those tiles a good weekly scrub. But how often do you clean out and disinfect your fridge?

Well, probably not often enough, according to a recent study, which found that fridges are the second dirtiest place in your household, just behind bathroom seals.

The Hygiene Council found that of the fridges surveyed, 35 per cent were unsatisfactory and 15 per cent were heavily contaminated with bacteria.

Fridge temperatures were often set too high, allowing the growth of bacteria, which included E. coli, Enterobacteria, and Staphylococcus aureus, all of which will give you a nasty bout of food poisoning.

So what can you do to ensure your fridge - and your food - is not a health hazard?

Food storage

• For starters, clean the fridge weekly - spray, scrub, repeat. Don't over do it with the disinfectant, unless you like your food scented with ammonia.
• Make sure your fridge is at the correct temperature for storing food, between 0 and 5 degrees centigrade. Your freezer should be below -18 degrees centigrade. You can use fridge and freezer thermometers to make sure this is the case.
• Some modern fridges have zones to store different types of food, such as meat and vegetables. Make sure you don't store meat in the vegetable zone, as the temperature there might be higher.
• Make sure you keep the door open briefly, as the temperature in the fridge will quickly rise, creating a breeding ground for bacteria.
• Cover leftovers well, and eat them within a couple of days.
• Keep bottles and jars closed.
• Keep raw meats away from cooked meats. Both should be well covered to prevent contamination.
• Store raw meats at the bottom of the fridge to stop juices dripping onto other foods.
• Finally, use common sense, and throw away old food.

This article was published on Tue 10 August 2010