Chilling food

Stop germs growing by keeping them cold. Look out for a use-by date or ‘keep refrigerated’ on the label

A person opening a stainless steel refrigerator door, revealing a glimpse of the contents inside.

Chilled foods and your fridge

Chilling, freezing and defrosting food safely helps to stop or slow down the growth of harmful bacteria.

Your fridge is a weapon in the battle against germs, but it must be used effectively. Some foods need to be kept in the fridge to help stop or slow down bacterial growth and keep them fresh and safe for longer. Generally, the colder the temperature, the slower bacteria will grow. But cold temperatures don't always stop bacteria growing altogether.

Here are a few useful things to remember about storing food safely in the fridge:

look out for ‘keep refrigerated’ on the food label
keep your fridge between 0°C and 5°C – and regularly check the temperature with a thermometer. You can use the built-in dial/gauge inside the fridge to change the power setting (typically the higher the value the more power the fridge uses to take the temperature down; if in doubt, check the manufacturer’s instructions for your fridge). Note: this built-in dial/gauge does not represent the temperature in °C
wait for food to cool down before you put it in the fridge. Do not let it sit at room temperature for longer than 1-2 hours
try not to overfill your fridge as this allows air to circulate and maintain the set temperature
do not leave the fridge door open for long periods of time
eat leftovers within 2 days
put food back in the fridge as quickly as possible
when you're eating outside at a barbecue or picnic, use a cool bag or cool box
if you're putting out food for a party, don't leave it out for more than 4 hours

Barbecue food safety advice

Storing food safely in your fridge

Illustration promoting proper refrigerator temperature settings, advising to keep it between 0°C and 5°C, featuring a graphic of an open fridge stocked with various food items.

Keeping food in the freezer

Freezing is a great way of storing food, keeping leftovers and cutting down waste. Freezing acts as a ‘pause’ button prior to any use-by date expiring and most bacteria cannot grow at these low temperatures. Your freezer should be around -18°C. For safety, it's ok to freeze most raw or cooked foods providing you do the following things:

freeze food up until the 'use-by' date
follow any freezing or defrosting instructions on the label
defrost food in the fridge so that it doesn't get too warm
use food within 1 to 2 days after it’s been defrosted – it will go off in the same way as if it were fresh
only reheat food that has been frozen once – freezing in smaller portions will help

Use-by and best before dates

The 'Danger Zone'

It’s important to remember that freezing food doesn’t kill some harmful bacteria in food. Bacterial growth can be ‘paused’ at these low temperatures but then can start to grow again at higher temperatures.

Therefore, when defrosting food, it’s safest to do so in the fridge because when food is stored above fridge temperatures, bacteria can grow and multiply – this is known as the ‘Danger Zone’ for bacterial growth. By defrosting in the fridge overnight, your food should never be in the ‘Danger Zone’.

Defrosting food

Illustration showing an open fridge with shelves holding a jar, butter, a chicken, and vegetables including a carrot and cabbage, accompanied by text "Defrost food in the fridge."

Defrosting meat, fish and poultry can leave them in a puddle. This liquid could contain harmful bacteria so it’s best to keep it covered or in a sealed container on the bottom shelf of the fridge so it can’t drip down onto other food.

Always clean surfaces, utensils, plates and hands thoroughly after they have touched raw or thawing meat to stop bacteria spreading around the kitchen.

You can freeze food again once cooked, but you’ll only be able to reheat it once after that.

Defrosting food safely

Defrost food safely to help avoid food poisoning

Over half of fridges monitored in our citizen science project FROST (55.4%) had an average temperature of between 5°C and 11°C, despite the recommended operating temperature for a fridge being 0-5°C.

Fridge Recording Over Set Time (FROST) survey

Our FROST research project monitored consumer fridge temperatures across Scotland to determine how many were operating at the correct recommended temperature range of 0-5°C.

Data from over 350 households across Scotland revealed that, on average, fridge temperatures are too high, putting the public at increased risk of food poisoning. Despite the recommended operating temperature for a fridge being 0-5°C, over half of fridges monitored in FROST had an average temperature between 5-11°C.

The top of the fridge was found to be warmer on average (5.89°C) than the bottom of the fridge (4.45°C). We recommend that you store low-risk foods, such as chilled beverages, in these warmer areas of the fridge to reduce food safety risks and food waste.

The majority (81.9%) of citizens reported that they didn’t manually check their fridge temperature. It’s important to ensure your fridge temperature is between 0-5°C to help slow the growth of bacteria and keep food fresher and safer for longer. You can check the temperature of your fridge regularly by using a fridge thermometer.

Read our FROST report

External resources

NHS Inform has further information on food hygiene safety.

Preparing and cooking food safely Food labelling