Posted by Larry Hoover on July 10, 2004, at 8:26:30
In reply to Refrigerator temperature, posted by KaraS on July 9, 2004, at 22:51:43
> This might sound like a silly question but here goes anyway:
>
> I know that refrigerators should be maintained between 30-40 degrees F.30 is too cold. Tender produce (e.g. lettuce) will be damaged at 30 degrees. 36 is about the minimum.
> I've been having some trouble lately with mine as it was in the low 50s for 2-3 days. Now I'm wondering what food I should throw out. I'm on a very limited budget right now so I don't want to just throw everything out but I don't want to risk eating anything bad either. Should I toss the milk,
Your nose is a good judge of milk quality. If you're worried, pitch it.
> soymilk, mozzarella cheese,
A tiny bit of increased concern, but they should be fine.
> dried parmesan cheese, Trader Joe's light mayo? What about canola oil or olive oil?
Totally safe.
> I have some frozen shrimp, turkey and chicken in the freezer that I'm thinking are probably ok. Still I'm kind of afraid to try them...
If they didn't thaw past the point of losing ice crystals, they're fine. You might have lost a little in the texture department (surface drying), but that's cosmetic.
> If anyone has more experience or knowledge about this kind of thing, I would really appreciate the advice.
My comments are generalizations. If you have doubts, trust your intuition. Notwithstanding that, I think it's always good to remember that the spice trade 400 years ago was prompted by the desire to cover up the tastes and smells of decomposing food. Cheese develops its flavour from bacterial decomposition of milk curd. Sorry for the yucky part of the truth, but I think people get the wrong idea about food poisoning and such. The big problem is cross-contamination (e.g salmonella on the cutting board). The next biggest is eating contaminated raw foods (e.g. E. coli in lettuce). Proper cooking takes care of both of those, but most people don't cook lettuce. Spoilage is not even close to being in the same risk category.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:364574
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/health/20040523/msgs/364656.html