So says the Wall Street Journal, in an article that reports most Americans clean their refrigerators once or twice a year. (Guilty as charged!) Gawker called it ”Refrigerignorance."

We are suddenly newly inspired to clean ours! And...we learned a few new things from the WSJ article. For instance, though the door might be the perfect spot for that carton on milk, it’s the worst spot for it as the door is the warmest part of the fridge. Also, get this...you should not keep apples and carrots next to each other. Apples produce ethylene, a substance that can cause some foods (including carrots) to spoil sooner. Who knew??

Our “research” shows that cooks and foodies keep a nicer refrigerators than others. We’ve seen a number of their refrigerators when filming our 92Y Fridges series, and never saw anything objectionable or dirty. As a matter of fact, all our video subjects seemed conscious of good fridge habits. When filming 92Y Fridges with Mike Colameco, Colameco informed us he keeps many bottles of water in his fridge not to drink, but to help keep the fridge cool and humid. And André Soltner was a little embarrassed when he pulled some cheese out from his refrigerator; it should be kept at room temperature he explained, but confided that his wife likes it chilled. Check out all 92Y Fridges videos here.

You can learn more about what the pros already know at Cooking with Mike Colameco classes, and on Apr 26 join Padma Lakshmi, Amanda Hesser, Kathleen Collins and Charlie Trotter with Alexandra Leaf as moderator for: Food on the Tube: How TV Shapes the Way We Think About Food.

[92Y Food and Wine]

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