Refrigerators are our only way to keep the edibles in a good shape for a longer period of time. Refrigerators provide the food with low temperature to keep it fresh and ready to consume whenever you might need it. And this means if there is any issue, you need to do refrigerator repair as early as possible.

But storing different foods improperly in the refrigerator can cause them to rot well before their expiry date. So, here are some tips that you can use to keep the food fresh in your refrigerator for a long time.

As A General Rule Of Thumb

Usually, you should keep the refrigerator set at 3 degree Celsius or lower to keep the food safe from rotting. That is because bacteria cannot function properly at these temperatures, and bacterial activity stops altogether.

Additionally, you should keep rotating the food in your refrigerator to make sure that the old food you stored can be consumed before other foods.

Let the food come down to the normal room temperature before storing it in the refrigerator. If you have raw meat in your fridge, place it in the lower compartments to easily manage the water that will come out of it while defrosting.

Storing Meat

As we just mentioned, meat should be stored in the lowest compartment of your refrigerator. This is especially true for the frozen raw meat. This way, you will be able to easily get rid of its water on defrosting. This also keeps other foods away from the water coming out of meat.

So, you should allocate the lowest portion of your freezer to freeze the meat that you might have stored. Different types of meats should be placed apart, as placing them close to each other can promote cross contamination.

Raw meat can be safely frozen and sorted for 4 days, and cooked meat for 3 days.

Handling The Dairy Products

To store dairy products in your freezer, you will need sealable bags or sealed containers. Dairy products should be stored in the uppermost compartment of your freezer. This is to make sure that they are not contaminated by any other foods in your freezer.

You should pay close attention to the cheeses once they are opened. You will have to use a sealable container to store opened cheese.

Veggies And Fruits

Fruits and vegetables should never be placed together in a freezer. That is because fruits emit gases that can rot the vegetables faster.

This is the reason why most of the modern refrigerators already come with separate fruit and vegetable containers. However, if there are no such containers in your fridge, you can store both of these separately in the upper compartment of the fridge.

Look up online for the fruits that release gas. You should store these fruits out of the fridge to keep other things safe. Some fruits also change their color and taste if stored in the fridge, so, keep those fruits on the counter instead. Even if you store some fruits in the fridge, keep them away from vegetables.

Nuts And Dried Herbs

Nuts and dried herbs usually do not require low temperatures, and they are okay at room temperatures. However, you can also store them in the fridge by packing them in a plastic or glass container.

These things can be stored in the freezer easily for around a year.

Leftover Food

Leftover food should be stored in middle compartments of the fridge in airtight containers to avoid contamination by other things.

When storing in the container, label the leftover food containers with date. This way, you can easily see when to use them, and when it is time to throw them away.

Dry Food Items

There are some dried foods like shrimp that can also be stored in the refrigerator. However, you must keep checking these foods for insect infestations as they are prone to them.

They can also reabsorb the moisture, so you must keep them away from any type of moisture by storing them in an airtight bag.

These were different types of foods and how you should store them in your refrigerator for extending their life. Use your refrigerator wisely to get the most out of it. And be sure to hire experienced appliance repair Northern VA technicians for refrigerator repairs.