How to pack your Fridge for maximum freshness

Whether it’s the soggy lettuce, shrivelled-up herbs or week-later leftovers, we’ve all fallen victim to the forgotten food at the back of the fridge. Food wastage not only impacts the environment, but can cost you money and waste precious time when you are forced to dash to the shops to restock ingredients for the ragout you’ve just started to prepare. So how can you make food last longer?

Tip #1: Choose The Right Fridge

Being organised with your food storage will only get you so far. Limiting food waste also comes down to your fridge’s ability to cool, and cool evenly.

Packing your fridge shouldn’t be a game of Tetris. Working out what goes where depends on the temperature zones inside your fridge, and knowing where the coldest part is. But, if your whole fridge is Antarctica inside, or constantly hovers around a breezy Melbourne morning, an upgrade might be in order!

“Your fridge should be cooling at 4.4º C or lower, and your freezer should be at -17.7º C,” says The Good Guys Buyer – Refrigeration, Peter Simic. “The temperature may still vary depending on how close items are to your fridge’s cooling vent, but those are the targets for optimum food storage.”

Fisher & Paykel fridges not only regulate temperature, but give your perishable foods a perfectly humidified and well-circulated home. Meanwhile, Chill and Soft Freeze modes put your food in its ideal environment, helping your meat, pasta and produce last at least until you’ve planned to eat it.

These modes are easily interchangeable within the four sections of the Fisher & Paykel 690L Quad Door Refrigerator – part of Fisher & Paykel’s range of sleek, black glass fridges. Finally, you can match your fridge, oven and cooktop to stunning effect.

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"Packing your fridge shouldn’t be a game of Tetris. Working out what goes where depends on the temperature zones inside your fridge, and knowing where the coldest part is."

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Shop The Latest Fridge Tech

Fisher & Paykel 690L Quad Door Refrigerator lets you go from fridge to freezer, and back again with Variable Temperature Zones throughout its four quadrants.

Looking for a stylish, glass-finish spin on a French door fridge? The Fisher & Paykel 569L French Door Refrigerator is the one, and also features an easy-access freezer drawer with built-in icemaker.

A slimmed-down version of its 690L counterpart, the Fisher & Paykel 538L Quad Door Refrigerator is savvy on space with compact shelves and drawers in a quadrant-style design.

Tip #2: Pack Your Fridge For Freshness

Your fridge wants to help you keep food fresh, which is why certain compartments are designed for certain things.

It’s no secret that fruits and vegies belong in the crisper. The sealed compartment maintains moisture so they can ripen and stay fresher for longer. Fruit also produces a chemical to help it ripen, which can spoil any nearby vegetables more quickly – here it’s important to use the fruit and vegetable drawers to separate the two.

The lower levels in a fridge are typically the coldest, and should therefore be reserved for your meat, eggs, seafood and dairy.

Then there’s the fridge doors – often home to anything and everything. To be safe, it’s best to store drinks, water, condiments and sauces here.

“Fridge doors should contain foods that are least likely to spoil,” says Peter Simic. “These areas are exposed to warmer air each time you open the fridge, and often sit furthest from the cooling vent.”

Tip #3: Establish Order In Your Freezer

Are you risking a food avalanche every time you open your top mounted freezer? Or is your freezer drawer forever hiding what you’re hunting for? Regardless of your appliance, a bit of organisation can go a long way in restoring efficiency and reducing food waste.

Aim to keep foods tightly packed, ideally in freezer-safe containers (no glass containers as these may shatter), so every corner of space is maximised. And remember, date and rotate! Label everything inside, and move the oldest items to the front.

Tip #4: Stick To Your Shopping List

Although fridges can go up to a spacious 800L, they can only hold so much. A simple way to limit food wastage is to buy less, and consider how much your household is likely to eat throughout the week.

Freezers are made to be full, but the fridge should still have some breathing room for exactly that – breathing. Where cold air isn’t able to flow freely around the fridge you’ll get pockets of warmth, which certainly isn’t ideal for your chicken fillets on the bottom shelf!

Keen to cut your food waste by upgrading your fridge? Visit us in store or online to browse The Good Guys range of innovative fridges and freezers from Fisher & Paykel.