Most fridges vary by several degrees between the top and the bottom, and between the back and the door. Put food in the right place and it lasts noticeably longer, which is the cheapest waste reduction available.
Set the temperature first
Aim for around 4°C or a little below in the main compartment, and about −18°C in the freezer. Fridge dials are often unlabelled and unreliable, so a cheap fridge thermometer left on the middle shelf for a day tells you more than the dial does.
Do not overfill it. Cold air has to move; a fridge packed solid develops warm pockets. An overfull freezer, by contrast, is more efficient.
The zones
Bottom shelf, at the back: coldest. Raw meat and fish belong here, in a container, so nothing can drip onto anything below. This is a food safety rule rather than a preference.
Middle shelves: steady and cool. Dairy, eggs, cooked leftovers, opened jars. Milk lasts longer here than in the door, which is the warmest part of the fridge and the traditional place people put milk.
Top shelf: slightly warmer. Things that need no cooking: cheese, cured meats, leftovers you will eat today, drinks.
Drawers: humid. Vegetables and fruit, ideally separated. Many fruits give off ethylene, which ripens and then rots the vegetables next to them. If your drawers have a humidity slider, higher humidity suits leafy vegetables and lower suits fruit.
Door: warmest and most variable. Condiments, jams, pickles, things preserved by salt, sugar or vinegar.
What does not belong in the fridge
Potatoes, onions and garlic, which want dark, dry and airy. Bread, which goes stale fastest at fridge temperature; keep it out for two days and freeze the rest. Tomatoes and stone fruit until they are ripe, because cold blunts their flavour. Honey. Bananas. Whole melons before cutting.
Basil sulks in the cold; keep it in water on the counter like a cut flower.
Rough shelf life once opened
These are guides, not guarantees; your senses and the packaging date come first.
- Cooked leftovers: two to three days, cooled quickly and refrigerated within an hour or two.
- Raw mince and fish: one to two days. Whole cuts of meat, a little longer.
- Opened milk: a few days past opening, less if it has been left out.
- Hard cheese: weeks, wrapped in paper rather than plastic so it can breathe.
- Eggs: weeks. The float test is a useful check: a fresh egg sinks, an old one floats.
- Opened jars: follow the label; most say a few weeks and mean it.
Dates, honestly
Use by is a safety date. Respect it on meat, fish, dairy and ready meals. Best before is about quality, and plenty of food, especially dry goods, is fine long after it. Look, smell and taste a little: those senses are the reason humans got this far.
The exception is anything that could carry contamination rather than simply age. Bulging tins, mouldy soft foods and anything with an off smell go in the bin without a debate.
Two habits that save more than any container
An eat-me-first shelf at eye level, where everything approaching its end lives. Most waste is food nobody saw.
Cool leftovers fast. Spread them in a shallow container rather than leaving a deep pot on the side. Quicker cooling means safer food and a longer usable life.