What Frigidaire Doesn’t Want You To Know!

I haven’t written an article like this before.

This is simply a rant.

Anybody that has spent enough time with me has heard this rant. It is grumpy-old-man opinion, and, for better or for worse, should be taken as such:

Stop putting your lunch in the fridge.

Just… stop. 

Gladly. Let’s go back a few years:

You’re a kid.

At 6AM your mom packed your lunch for school.

It sat in your locker, or on the coat-rack of your classroom until lunchtime at noon. You ate your warm lunch.

You didn’t die.

You repeated this scenario hundreds of times each year along with hundreds of your schoolmates.

Everyone was OK. 

Somewhere along the line, mini-ice packs became popular. And we decided that our peanut butter sandwich and apple had to be refrigerated.

I pack my lunch everyday at 5AM for work and don’t eat it till around noon. I never refrigerate it. 

In my office we have FOUR refrigerators that are full of lunches. People eat cold apples and cold oranges and cold sandwiches.

I don’t get it. 

There are two questions to answer here:

Let me begin by admitting that my advice is not peer reviewed research, and it is not recommended by the FDA. (I do, however, have the seal of approval from my own society.)

I have eaten a whole lot of warm lunches 5-8 hours after I made them, and I’m pretty sure that I have never gotten sick from one. Fresh fruits and veggies certainly don’t need to be refrigerated. If they spoil in a few hours on the countertop, they were too far gone already.

Even meat sandwiches…how bad can they get in only a few hours from being in the fridge? (The assumption here is that you aren’t storing your lunch in the sunshine or on the dash of your car.)

Hard boiled eggs?

They will be just fine.

Even leftovers…like last night’s lasagna, casserole, or chicken? Assuming that you stored it in the refrigerator overnight, they are fine till you heat them up at lunch. It’s not gross. They aren’t going to go bad. Everything is fine. I promise. 

Second, does food taste better cold?

Well, I’ll concede that this is a matter of taste.

And we tend to like what we are conditioned to like.

So if you have been storing your apples in the refrigerator all your life (why?) and you are used to freezing your teeth off as you bite into a 33F (0.5C) apple, then my argument probably won’t sway you.

But there are very few fruits and veggies that taste better cold than warm, in my opinion. Hard boiled eggs? Does anyone like those cold? PBJ cold? No thanks. Even a salad, while not particularly offensive cold, tastes better at room temperature.

At least bananas are still safe.

Since chilling a banana will prematurely turn it an ugly brown, people tend to leave them on the countertop,

Where they ought to be. 

And don’t even get me started on cheese. It should always be served at room temperature. That way you can actually taste the flavor. Chilling any food mutes its flavor. 

I will make one exception: if your labor is physically strenuous and you are very hot and sweaty, then some cold fruits and veggies can be refreshing. This is really my only exception. 

Stick with me, and I’ll even help you develop a taste for warm milk! (You liked it warm at one time.) Trust me, all milk of any kind started out warm. I do not count milk-like beverages produced from plants. Apologies to my lactose intolerant friends, but I prefer mammal-produced milk. 

So: Keep that lunch on the counter:

• You won’t clog up the fridge.
• You won’t need to deal with the watery mess from dripping condensation from your unnecessary ice pack.
• And your lunch will taste better anyways.

Room-temperature is where it’s at. 

What are your favorite examples?

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