what temperature is a fridge supposed to be
Here's the Correct Temperature for Your Refrigerator and Freezer (Because a Few Degrees Makes a Difference)
Keeping foods chilled properly helps them last longer and stay fresher. Sticking to the platonic fridge temps can help you avoid potential foodborne illnesses, too.
The refrigerator is a phenomenon of modern food preservation. At the right fridge temperature, the appliance tin can keep foods cold and safe to consume for days or weeks by slowing the growth of bacteria. Alternatively, freezers can keep foods fresh and deter bacterial growth for months—or sometimes even indefinitely.
When nutrient temps brainstorm to climb above a certain indicate, bacteria start to multiply exponentially. Not every one of those bacteria is bad—simply not every germ is good, either. For both the quality of your food and to reduce the risk of food poisoning, you'd be wise to go along your fridge cooled to the recommended temperature and follow good refrigerator maintenance guidelines.
What Temperature Should a Refrigerator Be?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends that you keep your refrigerator temperature at or below 40°F and your freezer temperature at or below 0°F. However, the ideal refrigerator temperature is actually lower. Aim to stay between 35° and 38°F (or 1.7 to 3.three°C). This temperature range is equally close equally you can get to freezing without being so common cold that your food will freeze. It's also as close as the refrigerator temperature should get to the 40°F threshold, at which point leaner begin multiplying rapidly.
Temperatures above the 35° to 38°F zone may exist as well high, particularly if your fridge's built-in temperate approximate is inaccurate. Your food may spoil quickly, and y'all could prepare yourself up for some stomach troubles with bacteria, such as Salmonella and Due east. coli.
What Temperature Should a Freezer Be?
Generally, it would be best to keep a freezer as close to 0°F as possible, except when you're calculation a lot of new, warmer food. Some freezers have an choice for a flash freeze, which will drop the freezer's temperatures for 24 hours to avert freezer burn down from the temperature variation. You can opt to decrease the freezer temp manually for a few hours, but don't forget to change information technology dorsum after. Keeping your freezer at a as well cold temperature tin can run up your utility beak and cause food to lose moisture and flavor. If the freezer has a lot of built-up ice, that's a sure sign that your freezer temp is too common cold.
Refer to our temperature chart for a printable guide that you tin hang on your refrigerator.
How to Measure an Authentic Temperature
Unfortunately, not all fridge temp gauges are accurate. You may accept your fridge prepare to 37°F, only it's actually keeping temps around 33°F or fifty-fifty 41°F. Information technology'due south non uncommon for refrigerators to exist a few degrees off the mark y'all set.
What's more, some refrigerators don't brandish temps at all. They let you adjust the fridge temps on a scale of 1 to 5, with five being the warmest option. Without a thermometer, you lot can't know what those milestones translate to in real degrees.
Yous can purchase an inexpensive freestanding appliance thermometer online or at any home shop. Place the thermometer in your fridge or freezer and leave it for 20 minutes. So check the reading. Are you close to the ideal temperature, or fifty-fifty the recommended ane?
If not, adapt the refrigerator temperature appropriately to keep the temps in the rubber zone between 35° and 38°F by using the fridge's temperature command panel. You can practice the aforementioned in your freezer, aiming to go the temp as close to 0°F every bit possible.
How to Proceed Your Refrigerator and Freezer Cool
If you find your refrigerator temperature is flirting with the 40°F mark or your freezer is likewise warm despite your adjusted temperature settings, you lot can have a few steps to aid maintain an ideal temperature.
Let food cool before storing it.
Hot bowls of leftover soup or roast chicken can heat up the small space in your fridge or freezer quickly, putting the foods at jeopardy of rapid bacterial growth. To protect everything within, let foods cool for a bit (but not to room temperature—that will take too long) before covering and storing.
Cheque the door seals.
Gaskets around the edge of a fridge door keep the cold temps in and the warmer temps out. If there's a leak in one of those gaskets, your cold air may be escaping. That can make cooling the appliance properly more difficult (and use upward more electricity, boosting your monthly electric bill).
Terminate opening the door so much.
Every time y'all open the refrigerator door, you let the common cold air out and the warm air in. Resist the temptation to stand at your fridge when you're hungry, searching for a nutrient that volition cure your cravings. Instead, get what you came for, and shut the door apace.
Continue the fridge and freezer full.
A total fridge is a happy refrigerator. The same is true for your freezer. The refrigerator temperature can stay cooler longer and go on foods cooled best if the shelves and drawers are mostly full. Just be sure you lot don't overcrowd the infinite and cut downwards on air flow. That can make moving cooled air difficult and increase the risk of warm pockets of air. Ideally, go out around 20 per centum of the space open. (A piddling refrigerator organization can aid with that, too.)
Source: https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/shopping-storing/food/refrigerator-temperature#:~:text=The%20U.S.%20Food%20and%20Drug,1.7%20to%203.3%C2%B0C).
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