Storing food - fridge thermometers then lettuce

Storing food is a big subject. If you are throwing food away you are throwing money down the drain, in the dustbin or garbage. In the worlds current climate money is tight and most people do not have money to throw away. Anything therefore that can save waste, food miles and money is therefore worth considering. The first item in this series about storing food is a fridge thermometer which hangs on a shelf with a hook. Unless your fridge is running at the right temperature food will deteriorate more quickly than it should. The pic of the thermometer shows a small blue block half way along which is the right temperature for your fridge, 0-5C degrees as recommended by the UK food standards agency. http://www.food.gov.uk/ It will save you money.

Only a couple of days after I wrote this I looked at my fridge thermometer and lo and behold the little red line had not gone down to the little blue block and my milk was turning sour. My old and trusty fridge had given up and I could not get it mended as it was too old. What was interesting was the fridge felt cold.

The new one has glass shelves that get quite cold and I can understand they will keep food chilled. I was interested in if the settings of 1 2 3 4 took the temperture down to where it should be. The factory setting was 2. I tried 2 and a half, it was still 10 degrees above after 1 hour. I have ended up running it at 3 to get it down to 5 degrees. It is July in the UK and should be hot air but being the UK its only about 18C. So the ingoing air was not hot.

Please be aware that the temperatures as quoted in the food agency standards are too cold for tender items like lettuce. They are better kept in the salad drawer so they are protected.

However I thought you might like the story of keeping lettuce ' before fridges.' Which seems unthinkable now.

Wrap a lettuce in newspaper. Wet the newspaper all over until quite damp. Store in a pan with the lid on. As the newspaper dries out re wet the newspaper. It really does work and I have kept a lettuce in a pan for a week and it was quite fresh. Let me know if you try it.