How many of you’ll feel that your fridge is a dump yard? You buy groceries, you dump it in; you order food, you dump the leftovers in it; you bake, you dump it in; you feel like throwing away some food, you still dump it back in (Yes, such people exist!). Refrigerators are definitely blessings in disguise but you must also understand that they are a curse for a few. Perishable foods like meat, eggs, poultry, seafood and all dairy products are definitely the ones that have the ticket to go in. Again, it is not advisable to stock things inside the fridge for days or even months (years sometimes?). Refrigerating certain foods can actually reduce their flavour, nutritional quality and may sometimes also accelerate the spoiling process.

Here is a list of things that should never be refrigerated:

1.         Sauce: Sauces are naturally packed with preservatives and mostly have a shelf-life of 3 years or more. It is always better to check the label for expiry date and store it outside in a cool, dry place.

2.       Bread: The breads available in the market usually come with a shelf-life of about a week. And they stay in a consumable condition even if not stored inside a refrigerator.

3.           Nail Polishes: Almost 70% of women are known to refrigerate their nail polishes while some also keep other beauty essentials (like creams & serums) inside. In most of the cases, the fridge tends to decrease the life of such cosmetics and you may end up with hard, dry products that cannot be used.

4.             Batteries: We don’t know why, but there is a common misconception that batteries tend to drain their stored-up energy when they are kept outside at room temperature. While this is true to a certain extent, there’s definitely no way one could preserve this stored power by keeping them inside the fridge.

5.       Coffee Beans: Both the fridge and the freezer are known to induce the condensation process. This can highly affect the flavour of both coffee beans and ground coffee. Store it in an airtight container outside the fridge to lock its aroma and flavour.

6.       Whole Tomatoes: Tomatoes are generally kept inside the fridge in almost every house. They tend to become mushy when done so. Instead it is better to keep them outside in a paper bag. The ripening process will happen naturally and they will stay for 3-4 days. (Note that if you’d like to store tomatoes after cutting them, there’s no better place than a refrigerator)

7.       Nuts: Ziplocs are what they should be in!

8.       Potato: Potatoes hate moisture. When you store them inside the fridge, there tends to be too much moisture affecting its texture and flavour. Like tomatoes, store them in paper bags in your kitchen and they’ll be fine.

9.       Onion/ Garlic: Find a cool, dark spot (mostly a corner in your kitchen) away from potatoes. The gases released by potatoes tend to rot the onions. When kept inside the fridge, the moisture tends to make it mouldy.

10.   Oil: Keeping the oil inside the fridge will give a butter-like consistency to it. You certainly wouldn’t want that!

11.   Pickles & Jam: These are generally loaded with a lot of preservatives. The last thing you’d want to do is to let these glass jars occupy space in your ‘cool’ box unnecessarily.

12.   Honey: Natural honey never dies! Never!

13.   Spices: Air tight containers are where they should live. Moisture and spice never get along well.

Reference:

http://www.lifehack.org/ articles/lifestyle/12-foods- you-should-not-put-the-fridge. html

http://www.realsimple.com/ home-organizing/organizing/ organizing-kitchen/not- refrigerate/coffee