Is it really bad to put hot food in the fridge right away? Why?!
Is it really bad to put hot food in the fridge right away? Why?
Answers:
I am not sure of any reasons that might pertain to the food itself, but putting food that is too hot in the refrigerator will change the temperature in the refrigerator, warming it up and putting at risk some of your foods more vulnerable to bacteria growth- that will happen with going from cold - warm to cold again.
I did not realize how extreme this could be- I put soup stock that was still hot in the freezer and came back a little later that day to find something next to the soup stock had thawed quite a bit.
It can raise the temp. in the fridge. This alows bacteria to grow more quickly and spoil food faster.
yes........heat spreads and fogs up the fridge and temp change
it's ok if the stuff in the fridge is heated a little. sure, you get a little bit more bacteria growth, but unless you put a whole ton of hot stuff in the fridge, nothing major is going to happen. the germs are not going to say, wow! sauna time!
but the real reason not to do that is that it makes the fridge do a lot more work for nothing. heat exchange is actually not a very efficient thru air medium. as it is, when you open the fridge door, cold air escapes. then you put in hot stuff. and that makes the compressor work a lot more. the more work it does, the more energy it uses. you pay more electricity bill.
all that energy can be saved just by leaving hot stuff out to cool first. how hard is that?
yes, because the temp. is to hot and the frige won't cool it enough in the 2 hr. limit.
actually, it will also create condensation in your storage container, adding water to the food, making it soggy