Storage expert and owner of self-storage company Pink Storage, Scott Evans, revealed the best fridge and freezer hacks to keep the food fresher for longer and save money. He started by saying that most people “don’t take into consideration that different areas of the fridge have different temperatures” which affects the lifespan of the foods they buy.
Unlike the fridge, which should never be overfilled as it will stop the air circulating as much and can cause the food to spoil quicker, packing the freezer will help it stay colder for longer.
Keeping the freezer full will also “use up less energy to cool the freezer down” and to do this, Britons can buy food in bulk and then use the food a little at a time.
Scott explained: “Buying food in bulk often leads to savings, all you need to do is check whether the food you are buying is safe to freeze and how long you can freeze it for.”
Another alternative is freezing foods like “eggs, milk, mushrooms, broccoli, cooked pasta, bananas, berries, grapes and a whole lot of foods” to make them last longer. The aim is simply to keep the freezer full to save money on energy bills.
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Savings expert at discounts platform Deal.Town, Sam Whillance, added: “Most of the energy your freezer uses goes towards cooling down the air that comes in when you open the freezer door.
“So, when your freezer is full, there is less room for warmer air to come in, and the items that are in there will help to cool down any warmer air that does sneak in.”
In terms of the refrigerator, he explained the fridge door, upper shelves, bottom shelves and the back of the fridge are at different temperatures.
He warned: “You will need to think about this when storing your food to make it last longer.”
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It is known the door of the fridge is one of the warmest parts as it is the area that gets the warm air from the outside every time someone opens the fridge.
The fridge door “shouldn’t be used for fresh juices and milk like so many people do but instead opt to store items such as bottled water, ketchup, mayonnaise and soft drinks in the fridge doors as they can stand up to the changing temperature,” Scott recommended.
He added the door of the fridge seems “the perfect place to keep your eggs, milk and juices” as they often have compartments for them, but explained that due to the door being the warmest in temperature “it will cause them to spoil quicker”.
The expert recommended moving the milk from the fridge door to its correct position, which is “at the back of the bottom shelf”, as it is the coolest part of the fridge.
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This simple tweak “will make it last a little longer and save you a few quid in the process,” he said.
In terms of the upper shelves, foods that spoil easily with moisture, such as berries, should be kept there.
“If you keep them in the lower draws of the fridge where it is cooler they can develop moisture and rot,” the expert explained.
The top shelves of the fridge are also useful for storing herbs and making them last longer after washing them and putting them into a container with water, “just as you would do with flowers,” he said.
The bottom shelves of the fridge are often the coolest so keeping foods that spoil the quickest there, including milk, eggs, butter, cheese and meat, is the best option.
“When placing your food in the fridge try not to put anything too tall at the back of the fridge as it could block the fridge’s vents,” the expert added.
Finally, the food expert recommended double-checking the temperature on the fridge to make sure it’s at the optimal level.
If the fridge is too hot or too cold then the food will spoil sooner than it should and according to Scott, the ideal fridge temperature is between 3°c and 5°c.
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