The refrigerator is an important center of the household and as such, you would think that people would remember to keep these food centers cleaned more often than they tend to. Even though it is fairly cool inside, mold can still grow very well in these cool temperatures, as anyone who has opened a jar of spoiled grape jelly can surely tell you. Whether it is a jar of grape jelly or a casserole left in the fridge for a bit too long, mold can grow on anything in your refrigerator that it can get onto. This includes, well… just about everything that is not completely sealed up, such as home-canned goods that have not had their seals broken. Mold spores are everywhere and in the air we breathe, unless the air is purified, such as in a hospital or laboratory clean room, so it is fairly hard to keep mold completely off of something we do not want it on, but it can be done. It just takes a little effort. Cleaning out your refrigerator and knowing what to do with moldy food (some of it can be saved, believe it or not) is essential to keeping a healthy kitchen.
Take everything out of your refrigerator and put it either on your kitchen table or on the counters for you to deal with later. You will go through these items after you are finished cleaning out the inside of your refrigerator.
Remove all drawers, shelves, and racks so that you can wash them in the sink in whatever household chemical you have chosen for this task. Whether it is anti-bacterial soap, bleach, or even better, a chemical made specifically to kill mold, use plenty of it, but do not mix chemicals, especially bleach. If you do use bleach, do your best not to get it on your hands. Wear rubber gloves.
Wash the inside of the refrigerator with a sponge or a rag thoroughly. To get some things that might be stuck to the wall of the fridge or stuck to a shelf off, let some warm water and some of the chemical you have chosen soak on it a few minutes. After you are done with the inside of the refrigerator, wash the parts that you removed, dry them, and replace them.
As for the food you took out, put back everything that is not contaminated with mold. Anything with a high moisture content that is contaminated like sour cream or jelly must be thrown away. Blocks of cheese or dense items like hard salami can have the molded parts cut out and thrown away. Cut 1 inch around and one inch under the molded part(s), remove, and discard. The rest is usable.
Showing posts with label fridge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fridge. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Cleaning Out Your Refrigerator
I love my food, but unfortunately, if I do not remember to keep my refrigerator cleaned out regularly, mold loves my food, too. Often people who have busy lives working and taking care of children cannot remember to clean their refrigerators out as often as they probably need to and since they have more people in the house to feed, there will also be more food. More food in the refrigerator equals more of an opportunity for bacteria and mold to grow. This is not typically a problem as long as someone keeps an inventory of what is in the refrigerator and what needs to be thrown away. You cannot completely keep mold out of your refrigerator because it exists in its spore form in the air that we breathe and unless we are talking about an extremely controlled situation like a hospital clean room, it is truly everywhere. There is not really any escaping it and while mold can grow in your fridge, you can do things to inhibit its growth rate.
Take anything that is outdated and obviously inedible out of your refrigerator and throw it away. Cleaning out everything from the refrigerator and setting it aside to go through later is a good idea when you need to clean out the entire refrigerator and sterilize it. Gather whatever chemicals you might want to use for cleaning the fridge and while this can include bleach, you might want to find another alternative that kills mold and bacteria specifically. If you only have bleach, though, go ahead and use it; just do not mix bleach with any other household chemicals.
Wash all the surfaces in the refrigerator with whatever cleaning solution you have decided on, including the racks in the door and the shelves and drawers inside the main part of the unit itself. Give it a good and thorough scrubbing. This is probably something that you should consider doing between two and three times a year or possibly more, depending on how messy your fridge gets.
When you are done cleaning the inside of the refrigerator (and the outside, if it needs it), it is time to go through what you took out. Take anything that you no longer desire and is no longer edible and throw it away. If any jars have any sticky residue on the bottoms of them, wash these off with a warm rag so you don’t get sticky grape jelly or whatever it is back on the surface of your clean fridge.
Take anything that is outdated and obviously inedible out of your refrigerator and throw it away. Cleaning out everything from the refrigerator and setting it aside to go through later is a good idea when you need to clean out the entire refrigerator and sterilize it. Gather whatever chemicals you might want to use for cleaning the fridge and while this can include bleach, you might want to find another alternative that kills mold and bacteria specifically. If you only have bleach, though, go ahead and use it; just do not mix bleach with any other household chemicals.
Wash all the surfaces in the refrigerator with whatever cleaning solution you have decided on, including the racks in the door and the shelves and drawers inside the main part of the unit itself. Give it a good and thorough scrubbing. This is probably something that you should consider doing between two and three times a year or possibly more, depending on how messy your fridge gets.
When you are done cleaning the inside of the refrigerator (and the outside, if it needs it), it is time to go through what you took out. Take anything that you no longer desire and is no longer edible and throw it away. If any jars have any sticky residue on the bottoms of them, wash these off with a warm rag so you don’t get sticky grape jelly or whatever it is back on the surface of your clean fridge.
Cleaning Out the Fridge to Prevent Mold
With the obsession that many households in the United States have with food, one would think that we would remember to keep our refrigerators cleaned a lot more often than we do. Many of us have families to take care of and jobs to tend so, so maybe it is because we just do not have time to take care of this necessary chore like we used to or perhaps we think that the problem is not as bad as we are supposed to think it is. Most people realize that bacteria and mold can grow in the refrigerator almost as easily as outside it because of the large amount of food we keep inside it and a lot of the time our food is improperly stored, which opens it to contamination even further than normal. To keep a healthy kitchen, you need to clean out your refrigerator often; clean it out completely at least once every three or four months and here is how you can start.
Remove everything from the fridge, including from the doors, and set it aside wherever you are comfortable with leaving it. The best place is on the kitchen or dining room table or just your kitchen counters. If you do not have room, set things on a table somewhere, as leaving them in the floor is not exactly practical, especially if your floor is not clean.
Take every removable part of your fridge out and set them in a sink of hot water. If you are putting glass shelves in it, rinse them with warm water first to make sure the sudden temperature change does not crack the glass. This water should also contain plenty of antibacterial soap. Allow these to soak a few minutes, especially if they have any sticky residue like from jelly or syrup.
Start washing out the inside of the refrigerator with a rag or a sponge. Use a warm bowl of water and a spray bottle of whatever chemical you have chosen for this job. You can use bleach, but do not mix it with other household chemicals that you might have on hand and always wear rubber gloves. Make sure to get any food that is stuck onto the surface of the refrigerator off before you start putting things back.
When you are done cleaning the inside and done washing the removable shelves and racks, start putting them back. Then, go through the items that you took out and throw out anything that is stale, spoiled, or contaminated with mold.
Remove everything from the fridge, including from the doors, and set it aside wherever you are comfortable with leaving it. The best place is on the kitchen or dining room table or just your kitchen counters. If you do not have room, set things on a table somewhere, as leaving them in the floor is not exactly practical, especially if your floor is not clean.
Take every removable part of your fridge out and set them in a sink of hot water. If you are putting glass shelves in it, rinse them with warm water first to make sure the sudden temperature change does not crack the glass. This water should also contain plenty of antibacterial soap. Allow these to soak a few minutes, especially if they have any sticky residue like from jelly or syrup.
Start washing out the inside of the refrigerator with a rag or a sponge. Use a warm bowl of water and a spray bottle of whatever chemical you have chosen for this job. You can use bleach, but do not mix it with other household chemicals that you might have on hand and always wear rubber gloves. Make sure to get any food that is stuck onto the surface of the refrigerator off before you start putting things back.
When you are done cleaning the inside and done washing the removable shelves and racks, start putting them back. Then, go through the items that you took out and throw out anything that is stale, spoiled, or contaminated with mold.
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