Donna, I do not refrigerate butter except in the summer time, but it will go rancid with the heat. Right now in my 50F kitchen, the butter is sitting on the counter, where it usually is.

Frankly, I don't refrigerate my farm eggs either, as long as we are using them up within a week or so. I don't wash them until I'm ready to use them and we eat eggs pretty much every day. My extension service tells me that they don't usually spoil, but they will "dry up". I'm confident in the safety of my own eggs enough to do that. However, store eggs get refrigerated because of the possibility of salmonella and if I get more than a dozen or so of my own sitting on the counter, they go into the fridge as I won't be using them quickly enough.

But I've also heard people say that catsup doesn't need refrigeration and I've had bottles ferment and bubble out all over the place, so now I refrigerate it.

Annie

A lot depends on the ambient temperature in your kitchen, how fast you use it, and the way the food was produced.

Low Salt products spoil faster than the regular ones because salt is a preservative.

Those all-natural, organic things will spoil fast because they leave out the preservatives.

Room temperature is considered 70-degrees F when it comes to food storage, and for my post that will be the temperature when I reference “room temperature”. That is also the temperature used for food storage charts.

All foods are affected by the ambient temperature whether they are open or sealed, wet pack (cans, jars), ready-to-use, low moisture dehydrated foods, freeze-dried foods, and even military MRE type meals. To maximize the shelf-life, the optimum storage temperature is between 40-60-degrees F. The reverse also applies. For each 10-degrees F. over 70-degrees, it shortens the shelf-life.

Refrigeration is used to slow down the growth of bacteria, it doesn’t completely remove the possibility, but because of the moisture content, acid, fat, or sugar in the food, those things also help determine what would be “best” refrigerated. Temperature is just one factor in how long it takes food to degrade and go “bad”.

Bacteria need water to survive, so a dry cracker, cereal, or dried pasta will do fine at room temperature on a shelf. Maintaining a proper pH level is also critical point, which is why something like hot sauce (which tends to be vinegar-based and acidic) doesn’t need to be refrigerated. Bacteria also need to have oxygen (which is absent in vacuum-sealed foods), as well as the right kind of “food” to feed on (which is why Crisco and other oils, lacking both sugars and water, can be stored on the shelf without going bad for a relatively long time).

The result is that some commonly refrigerated foods are simply less prone to spoilage than others, even when they warm up. Here are some food examples:

Butter- Since butter is mostly fat, that alone means that bacteria won’t multiply as quickly in warm temperatures, but it is considered a boarder-line food for food safety under certain conditions. Unsalted butter should be refrigerated, but salted butter, according to one source, can be left out "indefinitely" because the salt lowers the water available to the bacteria. Take that one more step when the fat is separated from the milk solids in butter to form ghee (clarified butter - the butter fat), which has a very long shelf-life at room temperature. On a personal note, I store salted or unsalted butter in a butter bell (works best in the warm months) or butter boat (in the cooler months) and that is a natural way to cool the butter, even when kept at a warm room temperature.

Cheese- Once again, the amount of water in the cheese makes a big difference. Hence, the dry stuff in the green box is low-moisture and fine at room temperature. Soft cheese has more moisture, and according to the USDA should be pitched if left at 40-degrees F or warmer for over two hours. Hard cheeses (which include cheddar, Swiss and provolone) should be fine if they get a little warm ��" nice to note if your electricity goes out during a power failure.

Eggs- The problem with eggs comes from the potential for salmonella. Under the right conditions it can become a toxin. Salmonella, isn’t just on the outside of eggs, it can also be inside. Eggs actually store fairly well at room temperature or cooler without going “bad”, it’s the salmonella where the problem comes in. I read an interesting egg fact recently - “in parts of Europe salmonella is virtually non-existent, and even in the U.S. only 1 in 10,000 eggs actually has the bacteria. And even if it does, cooking it properly will kill the bacteria.” It’s spreading the spores to other “hosts” where we have another problem - cross contamination. So room temperature eggs could be considered “safe”, but they also lose moisture and nutrition when kept at room temperature much faster then when refrigerated.

Bread- The refrigerator is actually the worst place to store bread. It stales faster in the refrigerator than at room temperature. In one scientific experiment I have in my files, refrigerated bread staled as much in one day in the refrigerator as bread held at 86-degrees F did in six.

Condiments- “Ketchup, mustard and other vinegar-based condiments are able to survive warm environments for the same reason that hot sauce doesn’t need to be in the fridge. The high acidity of these foods makes them poor breeding grounds for bacteria. The USDA also lists pickles as being OK at room temperature for much the same reason.”

The USDA says that mayonnaise, tartar sauce and horseradish should be discarded if they spend more than eight hours above 50 degrees Fahrenheit. “The pH of ketchup is around 3.6, which is acidic enough to avoid needing to refrigerate it. Likewise, as long as the mustard is of low enough pH (less than 4.0, according to the FDA), then there’s no need to refrigerate it, although a number of mustard manufacturers recommend keeping their product refrigerated to help maintain flavor.”

Jam- Even though there is a lot of water in jam, it’s locked up with sugar and bacteria doesn’t thrive. BUT, read the suggestions on the label of commercial brands for storage. Their particular formula may be a low-sugar mixture that could possibly support bacteria growth.

Even though there are lots of guidelines for food storage, there is still a lot of gray area. A lot of “we never” and “we always” and it hasn’t killed us yet. It’s always better to err on the side of refrigerator storage when in doubt.

-Grainlady

We never refrigerate butter once a stick is opened and in the butter dish unless it is melting in the summer. It annoys us to go into a fine restaurant with awesome bread and find butter in a dish on ice!!!! Why????

As far as ketchup goes, if you don't go through it within a month, it will turn dark unless under refrigeration (in a dark place.) It tastes fine - just looks weird.

Grainlady ~~

Is mold considered a bacteria? TIA

iris_gal,

Microorganisms can be divided into two groups: spoilage microorganisms and pathogens.

Spoilage microorganism will cause unpleasant odors, appearance and tastes. These organisms seldom cause illness. Examples of spoilage microorganisms are mold and yeast.

Pathogens, on the other hand, cannot be seen, tasted, or smelled. So, "it looks good", "it tastes okay" and "it smells fine" won't detect the presence of a pathogen. When spores of a pathogen grow into a toxin, it can cause some form of illness when ingested. Examples of pathogens include C. botulinum, Salmonella, and E. coli O157:H7.

-Grainlady

Living in FL means that the ambient temp is closer to 80 degrees than 70 degrees. Except for this winter. Guess I'm just lazy, but most everything goes into the refrigerator.