Wildfood.info

I have been pondering this for some time ... I have a fridge thermometer with the 'safe' level identified (between 0 and 5 deg C). To get that reading I set my fridge accordingly. However, I then find the stuff in the salad drawers freezes If I turn the fridge higher (warmer ), the temperature goes up to 10 deg C ... out of the 'safe' range, but salad remains intact.

Should I be trying to get the 'safe' range in the salad bins rather than the main part of the fridge ?

I've just moved my fridge thermometer into the salad box to check it out, because I thought the design of fridges meant that the salad box would be slightly warmer than the main body of the fridge.

I'm sure it's the main body of the fridge which should be running at between 0 and 5 degrees C.

When you talk about fridge temperature you usually assume 4 deg C is the working temoerature
That is certainly the temperature at which you should be keeping the foods that can go off really badly - meat fish, and dairy.

I gave up on my Lakeland fridge thermometer, I wasn't convinced it was accurate, I couldn't read it and it was designed for old school wire shelves but I now check the temperature of any liquid using an accurate probe thermometer, which seems to work

Contrary to what I expected, my salad drawer is running at 2.5C - about 1.5degrees less than the fridge - but certainly not low enough to freeze the contents.

So does that mean that the theory of heat rising applies inside a fridge?

Ok, iv done my science project. I have a probe thermometer that is supposedly accurate from -10 to +200 deg C
http://www.cdnw.com/product/combo-probe-thermometer-timer-clock-white

I have left it for 10 minutes on each shelf and recorded the final temperature, interesting, pleased you have nudged me into doing it. I repeated the 2 C result ad I didn't believe it but two readings an hour apart were the same
The good news is the doir seal is obviously working, I had doubts about it

I have four open shelves, from top to bottom the temperatures are 9 - 6 - 2 - 5 C
Below the shelves there's a drawer for things like ham & cheese, that's 3 C and the salad drawer is at 4 C
That seems OK as all the jars of stuff I refrigerate only because I don't have a pantry are at 9 C and everything else is appropriately stowed. Slightly relieved.

Does show that fridges really do have zones, mine has solid glass shelves and some kind of forced air circulation, which may be relevant

I've measured the top shelf again - getting 6 C now which seems more likely

Did I bore you all? Nobody has returned to this topic

Rip off Britain went into this in some depth this morning
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0b0w89n/rip-off-britain-food-series-5-episode-4

I saw that programme too Sue ... I have returned my fridge to just under (colder) it's original setting (just under 4) and left the thermometer on the middle shelf where it seems to register the temperature as within the safe range. So stuff on the top shelf (mainly in jars) will be a tad warmer and stuff in the salad bins will be colder, but not freezing my cucumber any more