by Another heat wave is on the road with the temperatures that are expected to suffer 30 ° C in some parts of Great Britain on Sunday and Monday. The hot weather not only leads us to overheating – it can also seriously influence the food in our houses.
While you may be finished from the freezer with a fan or a pair of socks, kitchen hardness are not always so heated.
Objects such as eggs, bread and fruit can spoil faster than they would expect. Even cupboard favorites such as peanut butter or open spices could fight in suffocating kitchens.
So what really belongs in the fridge when it is hot and what risks do you run if you don’t make space? We asked a food expert for advice on what to cool, how long food can look safe, and the refrigerator and freezer temperatures that every house should be on.
Egg
“After you have bought eggs in the supermarket, it is a good practice to keep you in the refrigerator when it is hot to keep the temperature stable,” Annabel Kyle, technical director at Food Alert UK to Yahoo UK.
If eggs are not kept cool in the heat, harmful bacteria can quickly multiply and increase the risk of food poisoning. Just leave them shortly before cooking at room temperature just in front of the fridge.
Meat, fish and dairy products
This is a child’s play: raw meat, fish and dairy products should go into the fridge as soon as they are at home, heat wave or no heat wave.
In hot weather, keep chilled and frozen items to your car until the end of your business. Then pack them in cool bags, ideally with ice cream bag, and store them on the way home from direct sunlight.
Older refrigerators can fight in the heat, so it is worth checking their work. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) recommends that you place your refrigerator between 0 and 5 ° C in order to keep food safely below 8 ° C and your freezer at –18 ° C or colder.
As soon as the room temperatures have been reached 24 ° C or more, they will already enter the danger zone in the danger zone for spoilage
Bread
While the risk that food poisoning from bread is low is low, it becomes faster at high temperatures.
“You can extend your life by putting it in the fridge,” says Kyle. “It may be stale faster, but they avoid becoming moldy.”
The toast -stale bread or the production of croutons are two ways to make sure you consume it and reduce waste.
Fruit
Stone fruits such as peaches, plums and nectarines can ripen quickly in the heat – and others like bananas, cherries and avocados. While you want you to ripen, you don’t want to mushy. So if the kitchen feels the heat, you should move your fruit bowl into the fridge.
“Refrigerators that slowly spoil,” explains Kyle. “Simply make sure that fruit is kept in the fridge just a few days after the tire so that it does not lose the taste and texture. It is a good place to keep it in the sharper drawer.”
Spices
When it comes to sauces and spreads. “If a product contains animal products – such as egg or cream – it should go into the fridge after opening,” advises Kyle. So that means Mayo should definitely be cooled.
“I saw how people after opening mayonnaise in front of the refrigerator stores that is no-no,” explains Kyle. “Always check the manufacturer’s memory instructions on the label, especially in a heat wave.”
Most of the shelf stable spices such as ketchup and mustard do not have to be cooled thanks to their natural acid, so that?
Cooling after opening can, however, help to get the taste, especially in warm kitchens.
Cupboard favorite
Chocolate contains milk, so it is a fair question to ask if it goes into the fridge. “Chocolate contains a lot of sugar, which contributes to preserving it, so it is not a security risk,” says Kyle. This means that it can of course melt quickly in the heat so that saving in the fridge can help to avoid chaos.
Peanut butter is usually okay in the closet, but in a heat wave, natural or conservative-free versions are best kept in the fridge for high-quality reasons.
A British study showed that they remained fresh at 10 ° C for up to 12 weeks, compared to a few weeks at room temperature.
How long can food endure?
In general, you should drop out for more than two hours not perishable food at room temperature, and this guide does not change, even if the temperatures exceed 30 ° C during a heat wave.
“The limit is two hours,” says Kyle. “After that, the risk of bacterial growth increases, which means that your risk of food poisoning is higher. So it is best to be careful.”
The FSA always recommends that to always save food with a “use” up to the date – like cooked dishes, dairy products and salads – in the fridge. Do not leave the door open for too long, avoid getting hot food straight and cooling meals in front of the fridge within two hours.
Do not keep it out of the fridge for more than four hours with chilled food preparation. Remains should be eaten within 48 hours or frozen if necessary.
Older refrigerators can fight in the heat. So if your refrigerator fights to stay cool, it may be time to adapt the dial – or at least check whether it works. And remember that the dials/measuring devices in house cooling usually do not represent the temperature in ° C, so you may need a thermometer to monitor the temperature.
Defeat
If you have food, don’t leave it on the kitchen counter – especially not in a heat wave.
“Always disappoint in the fridge,” advises Kyle. “The opening of room temperature, especially when it is hot, is risky.” This is because the exterior is thawed as a food so that bacteria can grow – even if the center is still frozen.
The high-risk foods mentioned above, including meat, dairy products, rice and cooked remains, must all be treated with additional care in the heat.
Quick tips to keep the food safe in warm weather
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Keep the refrigerator and freezing doors as far as possible
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Do not overload your refrigerator – cold air has to circulate
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Use airtight containers to protect foods
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Make sure
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Keep the food cool when you are in front of the house with cool bags and ice cream bag outside the house
In case of doubt, check the label – and if your kitchen feels more like a sauna, it may be time to make additional space in the fridge.
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