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[road's end farm <organic101@linkny.com>]

On Jan 22, 2006, at 7:53 PM, tanis grif wrote:

> I wonder how many refrigerators average a temperature over 40 degrees?  

They should be under 40º, ideally between 35º and 38º for general mixed food storage. 
(I would say, 33º to 34º, except that most household refrigerators won't hold that precise a temperature and if you try to keep them there things will keep freezing in them, in my experience.) If the refrigerator is over 40º all sorts of things will go bad in them much faster than they ought to.

Vegetable drawers may run a little warmer; and in fact many vegetables don't like to be that cold. But a refrigerator set at ideal temperature for tomatoes, peppers, eggplant (mid 50's) is going to be not only be much too warm for some other produce but would be seriously hazardous for meat, milk, mayonnaise, etc. So they're not designed to run that warm. However, it's a good idea to keep a thermometer in yours, and check it once in a while; you might need to reset it. I find that mine often needs readjustment with the seasons as the temperature in the kitchen seems to affect proper setting.

--Rivka
Finger Lakes NY; zone 5 mostly