Do you have to let food cool down before you put it in the refrigerator?

Question

Germans friends say if u dont let food cool down, it could break the refrigerator.
Americans say you should put food in the refrigerator while it is still warm so bacteria will not start to grow so fast.

Answer 1

The refrigerator is for cooling food. Putting warm food inside will not raise the temperature of the food inside significantly unless you are putting huge quantities of warm food in.
Best thing to do is give the extra to the dog.

Answer 2

ruready4f got it right.
Think about it .The inside of your refrigerator contains 20 cubic feet of 38 degree moist air
You stick in a pan of 170 degree lasagna which you baked in a Pyrex dish. An hour later what's the temp inside of your refrigerator ? What happens is that the rest of your food gets warmer as your lasagna gets cooler.
We know that there is no such thing as cold only the absence of heat. How long do you think it will take to remove the 112 degrees of heat ?
Remember the food temperature Danger Zone is between 40-140 and that zone must be traversed as rapidly as possible
Solution: allow the lasagna to cool a bit so the forthcoming ice water bath doesn't crack the Pyrex. Chill in the bath until an internal of 50 degrees is reached. Refrigerate

Answer 3

well I have been taught to cool food as fast as I can and then cover it and put it on the fridge. Yes it has to do with bacteria, since when you put hot food in the fridge it will bring the temperature of the whole thing down I can see why the Germans say it will ruin your apparatus.
So do I do it, when I'm working caterings I do it I follow what the food and safety guidelines say, but at home I hardly follow it.
*** My fridege still working and I have not died because of some weird bacteria growing in my not so cooled down food ***

Answer 4

You want to refrigerate leftover food rather than let it sit out to cool down because bacteria doubles every 20 minutes. My husband and I used to argue about this all the time. He wanted to let it sit out for over an hour to let it cool down. I did not. I recently got something in one of my magazines about it and I showed it too him and he now lets me put leftover food in the fridge!

Answer 5

It's fine to put it in the fridge to cool down but if you are leaving the items in a dish so that you can easily pop the food in the oven you are going to want to leave the food out of the fridge in transit the the oven or the glassware may break.

Answer 6

ALWAYS let the food come to room temp prior to putting it in the fridge. The temperature of the hot food will raise the temp of the fridge thus bringing all the food in the fridge up in temp. This is a simple HACCP rule. I'm in the business !!

Answer 7

I have never "broke" a frig because of putting hot food in it. That is stupid to even think that you could break a frig for that reason. The most that will happen is that the frig will run for a few minutes after putting hot food in it. If you are worried just let the food sit out for 20 minutes and then put it in the frig.

ps - one way to break a frig is not cleaning behind and underneath it

Answer 8

room temp is always the best bet putting hot food in the fridg lowers the temp of the fridge and ruins other food in there.

Answer 9

yes u do if not your food will spoil and u cant eat it. if u r to worried a bout it put a top on it and let sit over nite on the stove

Answer 10

isn't that why you put it IN the refrigerator? to cool it down????