Most of us organize the food in our fridge and freezer without following any particular criteria or order. Here are some tips to help you organize your fridge.

Clutter in the refrigerator causes olfactory and taste contamination of many products and, above all, accelerates their shelf life.

That’s why today we want to share with you some of the best tips on how to properly place every food in your fridge shopping basket.

Today, refrigerators and freezers of various brands make it easier and simpler to organize food by using special drawers for meat, fish and fruit, which are screen-printed for quick identification.

The division of these refrigerators into sectors corresponds not only to a purely organizational criterion, but above all to a temperature criterion, since each food we consume must be stored in a different temperature range.

What is thermal stratification?

To understand the latter, it is necessary to explain the concept of “thermal stratification”, which will regulate the organization of any refrigerator:

“Any fluid (liquid or gas) has the property of organizing itself according to its temperature, based on its density. The liquid with the highest temperature and least weight will rise, while the liquid with the lowest temperature will remain at the bottom. “.

Based on this concept, it can be intuitively assumed that inside the refrigerator there is also a layer of air that is distributed inside. In this way, we will have a lower temperature on the lower shelves and drawers and vice versa.

1. On which shelf should I put each product?

This is the main peak, closely related to the concept I explained in the previous lines, thermal static.

Given that each product must be stored in a certain temperature range, we must take into account the existing temperature on each of its shelves.

In general, the interior of the refrigerator can be divided into 6 parts:

– The upper part

This is the part where we should place products that need to be kept at a higher temperature, such as fresh pasta, chilled dough, jars and open jars. Since the air movement is always upward, we will also avoid contamination of other food products with odors.

– Middle part

Here we will place foods that need more cooling than the previous ones, such as dairy products or casseroles with leftovers from other days.

– Lower part

This is where perishable foods such as meat and fish should be placed, as it is the coldest area of ​​the refrigerator. If your refrigerator has a meat and fish drawer in this area, you will avoid a sudden thermal shock as soon as you open the refrigerator door.

– Boxes

They are usually installed to store food products that are more sensitive to low temperatures or thermal shock (hot-cold), such as fruits and vegetables that can spoil at low temperatures.

– The door

This is the coldest area of ​​the refrigerator, as it is the area that covers the refrigerator and experiences sudden temperature changes, so it is the ideal place to place products that do not need to be cooled very much, such as eggs, sauces, butter, soft drinks or water.

– Freezers

The temperature in this part of our refrigerator should be set at -18ºC. Here we will store food that we want to store for a longer period of time.

2. How much do you need to fill the refrigerator?

We often make large purchases in order to avoid going to the supermarket several times a month, and this would not be a bad thing if it were not for the fact that the high level of filling of our refrigerator can cause many products to go stale. sooner than expected due to the lack of air circulation to oxygenate the food.

To avoid this, we advise you to shop so that the fridge remains at most 75% full, allowing air to circulate and freshen the air inside.

3. Keep order in the refrigerator!

It is important to maintain strict order on every shelf and in every drawer of your refrigerator, otherwise many products can go unnoticed or hidden by others, which can lead to their loss due to the expiration date.

We recommend that you rearrange the fridge every time you need to replace food, so that they do not hide each other and that the products with a shorter shelf life can be placed at the front of the fridge.

4. The freezer, our great ally

If you didn’t follow tip #2 in this article and came home with such a large purchase that you can’t even store it in the main compartment of the refrigerator, the freezer can be a good alternative to keep your products longer, and you don’t have to “feel like want”, so you don’t have to throw them away.