At this time of year, space in the fridge is at a premium, crammed with fresh ingredients and delicious things to drink that all need keeping cool through the warmer months. Get it wrong, and you can end up throwing things away before you've had a chance to eat them - wasting money as well as food. WRAP recently found that the UK's food waste stands at 5,199,825 tonnes a year. That's approximately 515 x the weight of the Eiffel Tower, and is costing each household with children up to £700 a year!
Here are a few tips to help you keep your fridge in good order, break some bad habits and cut own on food waste....
You're not making the most of your fridge space
We’ve all been there, you come home from the weekly shop and you’re rapidly running out of space in the fridge. But before you put it down to your fridge being too small, it may be time to give it a long-overdue clear out.
The Food Standards Agency recommends getting into the habit of checking what you already have in your fridge or freezer before you go shopping. This will prevent future food waste. Take stock of what you already have in your fridge. Throw out half-used pesto and other pasta sauces. Anything that’s limp or growing mould should be thrown out, too. Give the shelves a wipe down too.
You're not putting the correct foods in the correct places
Avoid unloading the shopping backs and just stuffing things in wherever you can find a space. Organise everything in the right way and it will help your food last for longer. This could be as simple as keeping food with the fastest approaching use-by-date closest to the front of the fridge.
Additionally, try following this rough guide on how best to store food in your fridge:
Foods that don’t need cooking, e.g. pre-cooked meats and leftovers
All dairy products: Milk, cheese, yoghurt and butter
Wrapped raw meat and fish. The bottom shelf also minimises the risk of cross-contamination
Vegetables, salads, fruits, and herbs
The warmest part of the fridge. Store items with natural preservatives here, such as condiments, fruit juices, and jams
You’re not cleaning your fridge often enough
It’s important to keep the shelves, drawers, and walls of your fridge clean. Verity Mann, Director at the GHI, tells us that we should ideally spot clean our fridge every week, with a deep clean once a month.
If you have an auto-defrost fridge and you find water is collecting at the bottom of your fridge, it could be that the drain hole is blocked (inside the fridge, at the back just above the salad drawer shelf). You should have a little plastic implement to use to unblock it (it may be in the hole or buried in a kitchen drawer), if not you can use a straw or a cotton bud.
You've forgotten the condenser coils
You've likely wiped down the inside of your fridge more recently than its exterior. But when was the last time you spruced up the condenser coils?
Located at the back of the fridge, these coils can become clogged with dust and dirt. Once blocked, your fridge has to work harder to keep food cool. According to research by Tap Warehouse, this could cost you an extra £56 a year in electricity and shorten the life of your fridge, which is a hefty £385 to repair.
The good news? Fridge condenser coils are easily cleaned. Simply turn off the fridge and vacuum the coils to remove the dust. These should be cleaned at least once a year, or more, especially if your kitchen is a pet hair and dust trap.
You’re not sealing and storing food properly
Both left over food and packages of open food should be entirely sealed to keep you fridge smelling fresh and to stop bacteria spreading. The Food Standards Agency recommends storing food in airtight containers or wrapping it in clingfilm.
Your fridge isn’t at the right temperature
Fridge temperatures can be confusing, often it’s just a 1-5 or a 1-7 with no clear indication of what means what. 1 is the warmest (or least-cool) temperature and the highest number is the coldest. It’s important that the dial is showing the optimum temperature for food freshness.
Your fridge should be 5°C or below. Buy a fridge thermometer, as fridge dials aren’t always accurate. Don’t overload the fridge (air needs to circulate) and open the door as infrequently as possible.
You could be contaminating other foods
It’s vital that you keep raw meat, poultry and fish away from other foods to avoid contamination and maintain the best food hygiene possible.
Ensure packaging is always tightly sealed and that you store uncooked meat/seafood on the lowest shelf of your fridge. That way, should any juices leak, they won’t drip onto other foods.
You’re not washing your hands before and after using your fridge
This may seem like common sense, but we bet you’ve gone to your fridge in the middle of cooking a meal.
If you’ve been preparing foods, such as raw meat or fish, it’s critical that you wash your hands before touching the fridge door or its contents to avoid contamination.
You keep your fruit and veg in the same compartment
Produce can be tricky to store. It can be hard to know what needs to go in the fridge and what's best left at room temperature.
There may be some items that are unnecessarily taking up space in the fridge. According to Good Housekeeping's cookery experts, onions, avocado, peppers and melons are just a few culprits that are usually kept in the fridge when they shouldn't be.
Keep onions in a dry, ventilated place, like a cupboard, and the rest in a fruit bowl.