Understanding Your Refrigerator

Do you understand your fridge?

Are you aware of what you should and should not put in your fridge?

Image source Pixabay

Let me just start with a list of things recommended to be put in the fridge.

• Dairy : things like cheese, eggs, butter, margarine, yoghurt, milk
• Juice
• Prepared foods
• Whole grains such as brown rice, whole-wheat flour, oatmeal 
• Salad dressings
• Mayo
• Bananas
• Oil

With bananas, it usually depends on how and when you want to eat them.

If you buy it when it is green and want to eat it much much later in the week, putting it in the fridge will delay ripening. When you want to eat it, just put it out to ripe for a couple of days.

If you already have a banana that is almost overripe, which is when the skin has turn black, putting it in the fridge will ensure the banana will stay sweet and won't go bad. Recommended usage will be for smoothies, or in my case yummy mashed banana fritters!

I know there is oil in this list of things recommended to be put in the fridge. The type of oils are olive, canola and sesame. From my readings, this is because they oxidise when exposed to heat and sunlight.

Chilled oils may become cloudy, but they'll clarify when put at room temperature.

Personally, I don't and will never put oils in the fridge. It just seems unnatural.

Let us now go to the recommended-not-to-put-things-in-the-fridge list.

• Tomatoes : refrigeration will damage the fruit by breaking down their cell structure. Will also cause loss of flavour
• Basil and any other herbs : will wilt faster, likely to absorb the smell of the surrounding food in the fridge
• Potatoes : Refrigeration will turn its starch into sugar more quickly. You'll get sweeter potato but it will also make it gritty
• Avocados : won't ripe 
• Garlic : it will start to sprout apart from getting rubbery and mouldy
• Bread : it will dry out in the fridge. Better to be put in the freezer for long term storage, then thaw out thoroughly before consumption
• Coffee : will loose flavour
• Honey : refrigeration may cause crystallisation which turns honey into almost dough-like form, making it very hard to scoop out
• Onions : moisture will turn them soft and mouldy

There is another take on the onions. It can be put in the fridge before cutting it to avoid teary eyes. 

When onion is cut, you break the cells that separates the enzymes and acids which will create the eye-watering gas.

So to avoid crying while cutting onions, chilling them beforehand is a good practise as the low temperature will render the enzyme inactive.

But to be honest, I've never tried putting onions in the fridge.

I never cry when I cut onions.

No, I don't have superhuman eyes.

I wear contact lenses and somehow it blocks my tear ducts.

Is it a known fact? 

I don't know actually. I've only known another contact lenses wearing friend who does not cry while cutting onions as well.

So people, it is very important to know how to store our food, more so in this very modern world.

We think that with all the modern equipment in our daily life, our efforts can be cut short in the food storage and organisation department.

But with an estimated 1.2 - 2 billion tonnes of food produced never reaching human stomachs, it is important to understand food storage and best practices to cut down on waste.

My mum used to say, think of all those children in Africa who does not have food to eat before you waste that rice on your plate.

Maybe we should start with 'am I going to eat that before it expires' question before we spend our money on groceries next time.

How I want my pantry to look like :)

Image source Pixabay

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References

Stock a Healthy Refrigerator. In Real Simple Solution Seekers. Retrieved 17:00, August 8, 2014, from http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/shopping-storing/stock-a-healthy-refrigerator-10000000678812/index.html

10 foods you should never put in the fridge. In News.com.au. Retrieved 17:30, August 8, 2014, from http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/food/foods-you-should-never-put-in-the-fridge/story-fneuz8zj-1226911945712

Foods that you should keep in the fridge – and some you definitely shouldn’t. In Yahoo Lifestyle UK. Retrieved 16:40, August 8, 2014, from https://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/blogs/jo-romero/foods-keep-fridge-definitely-shouldn-t-103125461.html

How to Arrange Refrigerator Shelves. In wikiHow. Retrieved 19:00, August 8, 2014, from http://www.wikihow.com/Arrange-Refrigerator-Shelves

12 Foods You Should Not Put In The Fridge. In Lifehack. Retrieved 19:15, August 8, 2014, from http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/12-foods-you-should-not-put-the-fridge.html

Global Food : Waste Not Want Not. In Institution Of Mechanical Engineers. Retrieved 16:44, August 8, 2014, from http://www.imeche.org/knowledge/themes/environment/global-food