9 Foods You Should Never Store in the Fridge

Our refrigerators have been a part of our lives since we were children. It became one of the tools and the toys whenever it’s hot; and I know I’m not alone when I tell you that I tried to catch how the light inside it lit up and turned off!

Foods You Should Never Store in the Fridge
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Needless to say, it truly has become one of the most important and the most needed appliances in our homes.

But, did you know that there actually are some foods you should never store in it?

Refrigerator Temperatures

On average, the temperature of our refrigerators sit between 1 and 3 degrees Celsius.

Its main purpose is to cool whatever item is inside, right? The thing is, there are a couple of items – food, specifically, that you should never put in the fridge.

Each of them have a reason, so, without further ado, here are the foods you should never store in the fridge.

Bread

Instead of putting them inside the refrigerator, place them in a location of room temperature like a shelf, a cabinet, or a basket.

Doing so will help keep the mold growth of the bread, consistently allowing the bread to stay soft and munchy, instead of being hard and tough.

Chocolate

You know what they say about chocolates. When you buy them from the store, they’re kept at room temperature; it should stay like that because if you refrigerate it, it will melt – and that is true.

However, we, Filipinos, have a habit of storing it in the fridge.

Apart from the fact that it will melt, the moisture and temperature of the fridge can mess up the texture, color, and the overall taste of the chocolate.

So, avoid putting your chocolates inside the fridge, especially after you purchase it.

NOTE: Chocolates also absorb smells from other ingredients – keep them away from the fridge!

Vinegar

Vinegar is self-preserving. In fact, in Filipino culture, we put vinegar to the foods we don’t want to spoil!

Take adobo, for example. It has a lot of vinegar and it doesn’t spoil even after if it’s left unrefrigerated even for a few days!

Even if you take and store vinegar in room temperature, it’ll not be spoiled!

Bananas

Naturally, if you leave bananas out in the open, even if you don’t refrigerate them, they’ll become ripe.

However, if you decide to put or place them inside a refrigerator, it can kind of slow the ripening process down.

So, it’s not true that if you put an unripe banana inside the fridge, it’ll hasten its ripening. As a matter of fact, it’s even the other way around – it can keep it unripe.

Ripe bananas, on the other hand, that are inside the fridge will have its skin turn color brown or black.

Garlic

Did you know why groceries and other markets keep garlics dry? Because if you place them inside the fridge, mold will grow and it’ll actually turn into something that doesn’t quite look like what a garlic does.

So, instead of storing your garlic inside the fridge, store them somewhere warm and within room temperature instead.

Hot Sauce

Who doesn’t love hot sauce topped up in every Filipino meal? We Filipinos have habits of storing hot sauce inside the fridge, especially after we eat pizza take out, but we shouldn’t.

Hot sauce contains vinegar and we know that we should not store vinegar in the fridge because the temperature prevents bacterial growth.

Eggs

Contrary to popular belief, eggs don’t actually rot if you fail to place them inside a refrigerator.

As a matter of fact, it’s the other way around! However, it’s a rule that if you bought eggs refrigerated, then you should keep them refrigerated.

On the other hand, you can keep them at room temperature.

Coffee

No matter what form of coffee it’s in, you should never store it in your fridge.

Coffee is like a sponge, therefore, it absorbs all the smells around it. Now, if you keep and store it in your fridge, it’ll absorb the smell and the odor inside your refrigerator.

Another problem is that if it undergoes sudden change in temperature, moisture would build up on the coffee and it would de-saturate it, removing flavor, color, and overall aroma from the beans.

Didn’t you ever wonder why coffee is used as an odor neutralizer in toilets?

Ketchup

Ketchup contains tomatoes and vinegars, therefore, it is acidic.

Because of it, there’s a natural tendency that these microorganisms will grow, turning your ketchup bad. Therefore, you don’t really need to keep them stored inside your fridge.

Here in the Philippines though, if the regular temperature of your house is hot, then you can consider keeping or storing them inside the fridge. Otherwise, it’s best to keep them at room temperature.

Those are just a few of the most crucial and the most common things that we see in Filipino fridges. Therefore, it’s just right for you to know these foods you should never store in the fridge.

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