Hot food in fridge

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I'm probably posting this in the wrong forum (and the wrong website) but I've never put hot food in a cold fridge. Just wondering if it's OK to put heated food into a fridge or a freezer before cooling it to room temperature?
 
It's not a great idea, especially the freezer, if you put hot food next to the other items in your fridge \ freezer you risk the transfer of the heat to those items. Better to wait until it is at least lukewarm.
 
I try not to put hot food in the fridge (not sure why) but I've only 45 minutes for lunch. I normally take night-before pre cooked food from fridge/freezer, microwave, consume half and don't have time to cool before replacing in fridge.
 
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Something about the idea of taking pre-cooked food, reheating it in microwave and then putting it back into the freezer seems risky to me, so I can't advise you personally there... presumably you are then planning to reheat that portion again?

I strongly suggest you have a read of this, which is very firm that "Leftovers should only be reheated once."
https://www.fsai.ie/faq/domestic.html
 
Thanks for the link odyssey06. I try to allow hot food to cool before putting it in the fridge but apparently "After cooking, once the steam has evaporated from the food, it should be covered and stored in the fridge." My mother would not be a happy camper to see me put hot food in the fridge..
 
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Only put into the microwave what you intend to eat - it isn't a good idea to reheat the whole lot and then put half back into the fridge again. As odyssey said, have a read of the fsai site. Also check out this article on the subject - pay special attention in this one to reheating rice which is said to be a bad idea and also on the bit about reheating in a microwave.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35234184
 
I usually put the amount I intend to eat into the microwave . But often my eyes are bigger than my belly:( Apparently "you should cover your left-over food, let it cool to room temperature (no more than four hours), and then put it straight into the fridge." That sounds right. But now I'm thinking that it is also be OK to put hot food in the fridge - "once the steam has evaporated from the food"
 
It's not a good idea because it raises the temp in the fridge possibly affecting the other food in there. Ideally it should be cold going in there.
 
I'm sure that introducing hot food into a fridge might rise the fridge temp but opening the fridge door has the same effect.
 
So long as you don't leave the door open for extended periods, it has negligible effect on your average family fridge. The thermal mass of the contents serves to help regulate temperature, and an air change alone won't overly stress the fridge into working overtime to compensate.
 
Leo said:
So long as you don't leave the door open for extended periods
Click to expand...
It's impossible to explain this concept to children.
Thanks for the info. I would always have allowed food to cool before putting it in the fridge but it looks like I was wrong:(
“Time plus warmer temperatures equals growth of bacteria,” says Shelley Feist, executive director of the nonprofit Partnership for Food Safety Education. In other words, leaving food out at room temperature encourages bacteria to thrive. “We have what’s called the two-hour rule: Food should only be out for two hours before it’s put in the refrigerator,” says Feist. Any longer than that in the “danger zone” of temperatures between 40 degrees (the maximum recommended setting for home refrigerators) and 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and bacteria can multiply to dangerous numbers.
(http://www.aarp.org/home-garden/hou..._let_hot_food_cool_before_refrigerating_.html)
 
Invest in a digital scales and smaller containers. And have one portion per container. Have a look at standard weights for portions by looking at what shops themselves sell (e.g. generally a pasta lunch for one will be 300-400g) it takes the guess work out it and stops you trying to guesstimate when you are hungry (like the never go shopping hungry rule - you are determining your portion at the wrong time!). It might take a little fine tuning to get your own personal portion size right (maybe you are big eater and need closer to 500g) but then you won't have leftover leftovers to recool!
 
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