What is the ideal temperature for a refrigerator?

The purpose of a refrigerator is to slow the growth of bacteria -- since some foods don't freeze well, they can't be placed in a freezer. Check out this HowStuffWorks podcast to learn the ideal temperature for your refrigerator.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:22):
Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question, what is the
ideal temperature for a refrigerator? The purpose of a refrigerator
is to slow down the growth of bacteria. The purpose
of a freezer is to stop bacteria completely by freezing
them as solid. We would freeze everything if we could,
but some foods change dramatically when you freeze them. Let

(00:43):
Us and strawberries are two good examples of foods that
don't freeze well. It would also be inconvenient to thaw
liquids every time you wanted to drink something. Therefore, you
want your refrigerator to be cold, but not so cold
that it freezes things. The preferred temper sure is somewhere
between thirty five and thirty eight degrees fahrenheit. Anything higher

(01:05):
and foods will spoil too quickly. Higher temperatures can also
create food poisoning problems because warm foods won't cool quickly
enough when you put them in the refrigerator. Anything lower
and freezing becomes a big problem. Do you have any
ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send
me an email at podcast at how stuff works dot com.

(01:28):
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