How To Store Food In Summer: 10 Steps

Summer brings its own unique problems for your home and especially your kitchen. In the winter, you can keep cooked food outside for hours. But in summer, food cooked in the afternoon gets bad by evening if you do not store it immediately. Most housekeepers make some tactical mistakes when it comes to food safety in summer. If you know how to store food in summer, the waste of food in your house can be restricted to minimum.

In summer, food safety is paramount because eating spoiled food can lead to food poisoning. That is why you must take these food safety tips seriously. Learning how to store food in summer can help you to stay healthy throughout the hot months. Bacteria and other microbes that spoil food are hyperactive in the hot and moist weather; it gives them the perfect conditions to thrive. That is why it is very easy to pick up stomach infections during this time.

WAYS TO INCREASE SHELF LIFE OF FOODS

If you want to store food properly and keep it safe for longer periods of time, use these food safety tips for summer. Keep the following points in mind when you store food during this season and you will cut down your wastage to a minimum.

Don’t Over Fill Refrigerator

In summer, many people complain that food kept in the refrigerator also goes stale in a matter of hours. This is mainly because you are stuffing your fridge with more eatables than it can store. Cook according to the capacity of your fridge.

Don’t Refrigerate Hot Food

Just because it is summer and food gets spoilt quickly, never store steaming hot food in the fridge. Allow the food to cool to room temperature and then store it.

Lower The Temperature of Refrigerator

During the summer, you must always adjust the temperature of your refrigerator at a few degrees lower than normal. This is thermostat technology that helps your refrigerator adapt to the hot weather.

Heat As Much Food As You Need

When you are heating some refrigerated food, heat only as much food as you need. Never heat the entire container in the microwave. Too much heating makes the food go bad.

Don’t Store Re-Heated Food

Re-heated food must never be stored in the fridge. This is because when you heat food, bacteria starts working on it. And when you put that same food back in the fridge, it will still go stale as the bacteria have already started spoiling the food.

Store Portions Of Food In Smaller Containers

Try to avoid storing a food item in one large container. Instead use smaller containers to store parts of the food. When you serve yourself from a large container, you end up messing up the food and too much probing can also make the food go bad.

Keep Leftovers In Covered Containers

You must know how to store food in summer so that you can use it for a long time. Keep the leftovers in covered containers so that they are not affected by bacteria even when they are in the fridge.

Thaw Frozen Food Before Cooking It

Frozen foods are not safe from getting spoiled. Before you cook frozen foods, you must allow them to thaw completely. And thaw only as much of the food as you are going to cook.

Raw Meat And Fish Should Be Stored In The Freezer Only

Raw foods and cooked foods must be clearly separated in your fridge. Keep the raw meat and fish in the freezer. Raw fruits and vegetables must go in the basket below. Raw milk usually goes into the chiller. The shelves in are for storing cooked food.

Sour Foods Must Be Stowed In Fridge Immediately

If you are using too many tomatoes, lemon or too much curd to cook a dish, store in the fridge quickly. Sour foods get spoilt quickly in the summer months.