Cleaning Up the Office Refrigerator

Horror stories abound about office refrigerators! Here are a few chilling tales:

• Human stool samples stored in the same refrigerator as employee lunches.
• Cow manure samples refrigerated next to food items.

• Over 30 people at one company became sick because leftover food in a deep container didn't cool fast enough. Bacteria in the food multiplied to a level that caused illness when the food was served again.

• Sandwiches put out for staff in the company breakroom left out too long. Over a dozen people became ill.

• Foods with expiration dates 2 years and older found in refrigerators. A sack lunch of an employee who left the company several months ago remained.

Tales of fuzzy and fermented foods are common! One refrigerator magnet summed up the situation: "If a messy kitchen is a happy kitchen, this place is delirious."

Refrigerator Food Safety Quiz

Many offices find it helpful to have an office refrigerator policy. Before developing such a policy, some knowledge about keeping food safely refrigerated might be helpful. Here's a quiz to test your refrigerator food safety savvy. At the end are some tips for developing, implementing and maintaining an office refrigerator policy.

Test Your Refrigerator Food Safety Savvy

Answer YES or NO to the following questions:

1. Is it safe to leave perishable foods at room temperature for longer than TWO hours TOTAL time? (Perishable foods include: meat, poultry, fish, eggs, tofu; dairy products; cooked pasta, rice and vegetables; fresh, peeled and/or cut fruits and vegetables.)
2. Is it OK to refrigerate foods while they're still warm?
3. Should you eat refrigerated leftovers within a day or two for safety and quality?
4. Should you keep your refrigerator at 40 degrees or lower?
5. Can you always see, smell or taste bacteria that cause food-borne illness?

Answers

1. NO. Refrigerate perishable foods so the TOTAL time they're at room temperature is less than 2 hours. At room temperature, just ONE bacterium in these foods could grow to 2,097,152 in 7 hours!
2. YES. Just leave the container cover slightly cracked until the food has cooled. Refrigerate foods in shallow containers to speed cooling.
3. YES. Eat refrigerated leftovers promptly.
4. YES. Keeping your refrigerator at 40 degrees F or lower slows bacterial growth. Keep your freezer at 0 degrees F or lower, which stops most bacterial growth. Freezing DOES NOT kill bacteria.

   Keep an appliance thermometer in your refrigerator and in your freezer to assure they stay at these recommended temperatures

5. NO. When in doubt, toss it out! You can't always see, smell or taste bacteria that cause food-borne illness. It takes from 1/2 hour to 6 weeks before you get sick from contaminated food.

Some Possible Office Refrigerator Policies

A request for office refrigerator policies sent to several Internet food-related listservs yielded similar responses from throughout the country. Here's a summary of the types of statements and recommendations received:

• This refrigerator is meant to be used as a place to store employee meals (ONE day at a time). Those who store additional days' worth of food make it difficult for others to find room in the refrigerator for their lunches. At the end of each day the refrigerator should be empty of all staff meals. It is strongly advised people label ALL ITEMS they put in the refrigerator.
• SUGGESTION: Keep some type of marking pen/tape in the breakroom for people to use in labeling their food. This helps track down owners of unclaimed reusable food containers.
• Any perishable item meant to be shared with staff should be labeled "For Staff." It also should be labeled with the date it was refrigerated and the name of the person responsible for it. Anything not eaten by the third day will be thrown away -- no questions asked.

  Perishable foods include: meat, poultry, fish, eggs, tofu; dairy products; cooked pasta, rice and vegetables; fresh, peeled and/or cut fruits and vegetables.

• If you put things in the breakroom to be shared, make sure you use safe food procedures. For example, no perishable food (such as meat sandwiches) should be left at room temperature for over 2 hours. This includes the original time it was set out for serving. Refrigerate perishable food in SHALLOW containers.

  NOTE: Rather than leave perishable foods on the breakroom table or counter, one person suggested the food be refrigerated and a note left in plain sight instead. The note might say: "Help yourself to the turkey and roast beef sandwiches in the refrigerator."

• "For Staff" foods such as ice cream, ice cream toppings, condiments, etc. should be labeled with a date. They will be thrown away periodically, based on their "use by" date, a food safety storage chart or general appearance.

  Another example of refrigerator magnet wisdom on identifying foods to be tossed: "If it walks out, let it go!"

  NOTE: Access an online food storage chart from the Food Marketing Institute at:
  www.fmi.org/consumer/foodkeeper/search.htm

• Each day (give specific day -- frequently Friday is listed) anything left in the refrigerator will be thrown away by (give time here).
• If you spill something in the refrigerator, clean it up.
• Thinking beyond the breakroom, an entomologist advised that office workers toss food items ONLY into trash cans that are emptied DAILY. Letting food and food containers sit in trash cans for several days may cause problems with pests, bacteria and odors.

Implementing and Reinforcing a Refrigerator Policy

Here are some strategies various offices have used for keeping the office refrigerator clean (or at least, cleaner!).

• Develop a policy with input from staff and disseminate for additions, modifications, etc. before drawing up the final policy. Give a due date by which feedback must be returned to be considered for the policy.
• Inform staff the day a refrigerator policy will begin.
• Post the policy on the refrigerator, breakroom bulletin board, office intranet, in an office policy and procedure manual and/or other place readily accessible by staff.
• As you begin to implement a policy, send out reminders that food will be tossed by a specific date/time unless labeled. Be prepared to modify the policy as new situations arise that were not expected when the policy was devised.
• Initially, it may seem wasteful to toss unclaimed food, but consider the following:
  • Unsafe "mystery" food (no name/no date), that is taken from the refrigerator and offered to others, may make people sick.
  • More money is lost when food is left in the refrigerator to spoil than if people learn to eat it in a timely manner.
  • When a refrigerator is filled with unsafe foods, there's a possibility an unsafe food will contaminate other foods, especially if foods are squeezed together to fit everything into the refrigerator.

• FOLLOW THROUGH on tossing any unlabeled food on clean-out-the-refrigerator day.
• Assign someone accountable for cleaning food out of the refrigerator once a week. Some companies rotate this among divisions. Some rotate it among staff and have them sign off on a sheet near the refrigerator; people are responsible for finding a substitute if they'll be gone on the day they clean the refrigerator.
• Throw in some humor whenever possible. One office typically sent out an e-mail of "Food in Kitchen" when there was something to share on the communal counter. One day the message header was "Brew in the Kitchen."

  Having gotten people's attention, the sender went on to describe the "brew of bacteria" that was "fermenting, bubbling, replicating, growing and generally looking forward to finding a good home in someone's gut." She described some of the ailments that could occur from food-borne illness, and ended with some positive suggestions for safe food handling

• Don't forget -- it's important to periodically also clean the INTERIOR of the refrigerator.

Educational Resources Available from Our Office

FREE "Add a Little SPICE (& HERBS) to Your Life!" PowerPoint Presentation/Article
Download a FREE copy of a PowerPoint presentation on choosing and using spices and herbs. Accompanied by an article on the same topic.

FREE Nutrition and Osteoporosis PowerPoint Presentation
Nutrition educators can download a free copy of a PowerPoint presentation on "Nutrition and Osteoporosis."

Pyramid Power: The Food Guide Game
Pyramid Power has received awards from the American Dietetic Association and the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. Use Pyramid Power to teach youth and adults how to eat healthy according to the Food Guide Pyramid.

Don't Get Bugged by a Foodborne Illness (game)
Use this game to help youth and adults understand and use recommended food safety practices. Don't Get Bugged received an award from the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences.

COOK IT QUICK! Online Tips and Recipes
Cook It Quick offers tips on "Mix and Match" Meals; Cook Once, Eat Twice; Time-Saving Kitchen Tools and much more! PLUS, access online thousands of recipes. Sign up in the yellow box to receive e-mail updates when new information is added.

Subscribe for monthly e-mail delivery of Food Reflections newsletter

ABOUT FOOD REFLECTIONS FOOD REFLECTIONS is a FREE monthly e-mail newsletter and is also archived on the Internet lancaster.unl.edu/food/archives.htm.  FOOD REFLECTIONS provides a "how-to" message on food, nutrition, or food safety for health professionals, educators, and consumers. Author: FOOD REFLECTIONS is written by Alice Henneman, MS, RD, Extension Educator. Permission To Copy: You may reproduce FOOD REFLECTIONS for educational purposes but not for sales purposes. Please credit as follows: FOOD REFLECTIONS Newsletter, University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension in Lancaster County (lancaster.unl.edu/food/foodtalk.htm) E-Mail Subscription: To receive FOOD REFLECTIONS by e-mail, visit our Web site at lancaster.unl.edu/food/foodtalk.htm Endorsement Policy: Use of commercial and trade names does not imply approval or constitute endorsement by the University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension in Lancaster County. Nor is criticism implied of products not mentioned. Contacting Us: Your comments and suggestions are welcome. Send to: ahenneman1@unl.edu For More Information: For personalized answers to your food, nutrition, and food safety questions, contact your nearest Cooperative Extension office. Extension offices are located throughout the United States: To find your local Extension office, click here: http://lancaster.unl.edu/office/locate.htm

| Search This Site |
Food Home Page | Cook It Quick | Food Reflections Newsletter
Pyramid Power Game | Food Safety Game | Programs | Publications | Links
Site Map | Lancaster County Home Page | Confidentiality Statement