A review of the performance of domestic refrigerators

Abstract

7This paper reviews the published data on the performance and use of domestic refrigerators 8 throughout the world in the last 30 years. While there is considerable legislation defining 9 maximum temperatures during the production, distribution and retailing of chilled food, as 10 soon as the consumer purchases the food, it is outside of any of these legislative 11 requirements. Inadequate domestic refrigeration or cooling is frequently cited as a possible 12 factor in food poisoning incidents. It is clear from the many published surveys that many 13 refrigerators throughout the world are running at higher than recommended temperatures. 14 Since even these recommended temperatures are higher than the 0 to 1°C that is usually the 15 recommended temperature range for storing fish and seafood, meat and many chilled 16 products the current situation is even more detrimental to maintaining the high quality life of 17 chilled foods. Despite numerous surveys around the world, how refrigerator temperatures 18 and cleanliness impacts on consumer health remains to be fully assessed. 19

Water loss in table grapes: model development and validation under dynamic storage conditions

“…Nunes et al (2009) demonstrated that variations in storage conditions are normally encountered in the cold chain and they have a huge effect on decreasing the quality and shelf life of grapes and other fresh products. However, some authors suggested that the weakest link of the cold chain is the domestic storage, while home refrigerators and freezers frequently present poor temperature control (James et al, 2008;Laguerre et al, 2002). A study performed by Gogou et al (2015) for selected food products in Greece and France supports this argument, revealing that during the domestic storage temperatures may vary from ~ 4 °C to ~ 11 °C.…”

Microbial ecology of fresh vegetables

“…Somewhat alarming was the notion made by James et al (2008) who reviewed 20 published studies, conducted in parts of Europe, the US, and New Zealand from 1987 to 2006, and found only two studies reporting mean air temperatures of less than 5 °C in domestic refrigerators. Most studies showed a great deal of concordance, citing temperatures in >50% of refrigerators above 5 °C.…”

Teaching microbiological food safety through case studies

“…. using survey data (James, Evans, & James, 2008;Lagendijk, Assere, Derens, & Carpentier, 2008). For example, pasteurized milk, which is supposed to be contaminated with 1 Bacillus cereus spore per gram, can be stored 2 days at 4°C in the factory, 2 days at 7°C at the retail and a few days in the consumer's fridge.…”