Referendum on Refrigeration

If you have gone your whole life living a certain way and dispensing your food in a way that is deemed to be safe and responsible, only to have someone start a vicious rumor with vague facts at best and it be carried out and passed down to generation and so-on. You are not alone, is it an old wise tale or wives I couldn't ever remember. My stubbornness as I get older has truly gotten the best of me if it isn't broken, don't fix it, is a slogan preserving my way of life. To show all is well and to keep the anarchy at a minimum.

Well as you can see this is a very important issue to me and I will get to the bottom of it, hopefully as one expert states, it can kill me. I’d like to continue by asking the central question that I know for a fact has been racking mine and every one's mind and also what to do about it, while trying to find the solution and finally come to an agreement once and for all.

The issue is simple clear and concise…Is it okay to leave the Ketchup and Mustard bottles out of the fridge and at room temperature in the cupboard? It's as simple as that. A friend once told me that she has seen throughout a day what can happen if you leave the condiment out, it will harden get watery and lose flavour, but she did state that the cap had been opened for large amounts of time during her shift. My whole life I've had room temperature condiments one day everyone decided that the fridge was the prerequisite for storing my ‘RT delights’ as I've coined.
One list says products with sugar, salt and acid can be left out of the fridge. While other condiments with ingredients such as vegetables, fruit and dairy must be refrigerated. But if you look close enough you can find most on each list in almost all condiments or at least the aforementioned.

When thinking of these types of products and problems that may occur, these scary words always seem to come to mind like pasteurized, fermentation and nut butters can go rancid if left too long UN refrigerated, is the norm. Different climates offer easily mold able products but you would never see such mold up north “The Two Fat Ladies didn't refrigerate their eggs, but they lived in the UK and not South Florida.”

Some remark that it's all about a certain period of time. Spoilage only occurs without consuming at regular intervals. As in if you are not downing soy sauce daily as opposed to the typical North American.
Microorganisms may not be sufficiently killed by the acidity. Refrigeration will help slow the growth of bacteria but in the end will give your mustard and ketchup six months to a year to live.

I tremendously dislike cold ketchup and mustard, but I am guessing that food poisoning is much worse and quite disheartening when you do it to yourself. Thus I have broken down and no longer need separate condiments for each roommate as in the end it is more important to be safe than sorry.


Written by

Scott Penny