People Share The Things We Usually Refrigerate But Totally Don't Need To Be

The Other Side of Ketchup Hill

"KETCHUP."

"This is my hill to die on. Restaurants leave it out on the table. The bottle does not say you have to refrigerate after opening."

"I grew up in a household where the ketchup was always in the cabinet and didn’t know until I got older we were the minority."

- Ambitious-Squirrel75

Cats and Carbs

"Bread."

"We put it in the fridge because my precious little douche bags (cats) like to take chomps out of the bag."

- ChipTheOcelot

"When my cat had kittens I came out one morning and found they had chewed through the bag. They had then eaten 2 kitten-sized holes in the loaf for 2 of the babies to nap in."

"When I woke them up and they stayed laying down and started munching on bread. Apparently they got hungry in the night and mummas milk wasn't enough but they couldn't chew biscuits yet!"

"I went and got kitten food that day, but they still always want the bread, so we keep it in the fridge and also used the microwave!"

- MeltingMoment8

Tepid Tomato

"Tomatoes."

"They'll stay edible longer in the fridge, but they'll instantly lose all their flavor when chilled."

"I worked on an organic farm. The first thing we were told by the farm manager is to never put the tomatoes in the cold box since it destroys the sugars in it, so it'll never be as sweet again."

"This effect is a lot more noticeable with freshly picked, vine ripened heirloom tomatoes (e.g, Brandywine) vs. the already flavorless grocery store beefsteaks/romas."

"My mother grew up relatively poor and so was it ingrained to never risk wasting food. She'll always refrigerate tomatoes (and even bananas!) despite my attempts to convince her otherwise."
- Cybyss

"Tomatoes taste better cold, especially on a sandwich."

- AcceptableAd7000

"I prefer my tomatoes chilled... but mostly where the f*ck do I just keep tomatoes? In the fruit bowl?"

- kbsths99

"I didn't know people refrigerated tomatoes."

- Gunnvor91

"I have never seen someone refrigerate a tomato."

- hjablowme919

Lost In The Sauce

"Soy sauce loses a ton of flavor when it's refrigerated - and it doesn't need it."

"I found this out when I started working at a Japanese restaurant. My parents refrigerate their soy sauce and it just never tasted great to me."

"At the restaurant we use so much of it that we don’t get to refrigerate it. It comes in big buckets and we put in smaller containers for use in different parts of the kitchen."

"It tastes so much better room temp."

- tachycardicIVu

"Food manufacturers often put 'refrigerate after opening' notes on products that aren’t affected by temperature, such as catsup (aka ketchup) and yellow mustard - and soy sauce."

"Refrigeration can increase shelf life, but keeping at room temp is not dangerous if the product doesn’t contain milk or eggs, or if it has a high acidity level."

- No-Sheepherder-2896

The Butter Brick

"When I got married my wife showed me that butter can just sit there right on the counter, even right next to the stove, forever."

"What is this conspiracy to make people think butter needs to be refrigerated? Is it by the margarine makers to sell their stuff as a softer alternative to butter?"

- obsertaries

"It's fine for a while, but can go rancid eventually. So if you only use it bit by bit over a month it's better to refrigerate it - particularly in warmer areas."

- Hypo_Mix

"I live in the UK, if you refrigerate butter it goes like a brick and you can't scrape it."

"If you leave it on the side, in the best summer it'll be almost-but-not-quite liquid so you can just spread it directly and even in winter it'll spread far easier."

"Butter stays in my fridge only while it's still an unused block, then it goes in a butter dish out on the side."

- ledow

"I found this out too when I got married!"

"Husband was from Maine where it never really gets hot, so I just chalked it up to this, until I realized that even in Florida butter on the counter kept just fine. And it was always the perfect spreading consistency instead of rock solid where it tears apart your bread!"

"So it's a compromise, the box goes in the fridge and the individual sticks for use stay out."

- Coconut-bird

Cold Coffee?

"My Argentinian flatmate used to keep coffee powder in the fridge. I didn't know why, but this was working for him."

- jehacas74

"The oils in coffee can go rancid and change the flavor. Keeping it in the fridge (especially ground coffee) preserves the flavor a little longer."

"My family keeps our Greek (Turkish) coffee in the freezer since we don't make it too often."

- SecretiveGoat

"This is a good way to ruin coffee, which is extremely absorbent. I guess it's fine if you’re OK with coffee that tastes like your freezer smells."

"Keep coffee in airtight glass containers."

- improbable_humanoid

Mama Never Steered Me Wrong

"Store-bought mayonnaise."

"I was raised in the South, and my mother (born in 1924) was kind of obsessed with the idea that mayonnaise left out of the refrigerator would "turn" and grow a bunch of salmonella."

"We were repeatedly cautioned to be sure to return the mayonnaise jar to the fridge immediately. When Mom was a girl, mayonnaise was homemade out of raw egg yolks, lemon juice, salt and cooking oil."

"Then I took a food safety course (I was an RN and got assigned to be the safety inspector at my hospital) and to my great surprise the county food safety instructor told us that unrefrigerated commercial mayonnaise only very rarely was ever a problem."

"I still don't trust it though. My mama never steered me wrong, I don't care what the county food safety guy says."

- KaBar2

Protective Coating

"EGGS"

"In America they are refrigerated because they get washed after laying so the cuticle is removed."

"I have hens at home and i do not refrigerate eggs and nowhere in Europe they do this in the stores and i have never ever bought an egg that has gone bad."

- HairyPlastic

How The French Do

"Orange juice."

"I found out they don't refrigerate it over in France. That freaked me out."

- TeeteringCrockery

"You don't have to refrigerate it until you open it."

"Then you absolutely have to refrigerate it, in France just as much as anywhere else. It says this on the bottle/carton."

- VivianCold

That Annoying Kid

"If you're that annoying kid, that almost-emptied water jug, carton of milk, juice container, etc."

- SafeNa_jhokjhok

But It's Better Cold

"Salami is a preservation technique that doesn’t require refrigeration."

- SnooPeppers8858

It Never Lasts

"Orange juice. It’s a lot better at room temp."

"Orange juice never lasts longer then a day in my house, if I get heartburn maybe two days. I buy mine at this store where you can get the fresh squeezed stuff from a machine that has all these oranges at the top and you see the whole process of juice makin’"

"I usually chug half the bottle on my way home and then drink the rest later. It never gets refrigerated."

- LSVSK

No Spread

"Peanut butter. I always hated making pb and j with the cold ass peanut butter in the fridge."

"Black people, stop this nonsense. Yes, I'm calling us out. You know what your parents did."

- AlextheLyonnn

"Hispanic household here, was super annoying and weird to have cold peanut butter. It doesn't spread! Why do we do this?"

- NerdzillaFTW

"My fam keeps it in the fridge but I'd like it outside cuz it would be less difficult to actually get a scoop of it."

- WRISTBLVDE

It's Gonna Have To Be A Big Circle

"The deepest circle of hell is reserved for anyone who puts jam, vegemite, tomato sauce or chocolate in the fridge."

"You're all terrible human beings!"

- Sowab

Sketchy Sailor

"Most things. Even mayonnaise can live outside the fridge, as long as you always use a clean utensil."

"I lived on a sailboat for 3 years with no refrigerator and only ever needed a cooler when I wanted meat, or milk.
Even cheese can live on the counter."

"I'd leave leftovers (rice and bean based dishes, cooked meat sometimes) in Tupperware on the counter for a couple days even."

- mrjigglejam

Called Out

"Those 2 month old leftovers hiding in the back in the takeout container."

- Dylsnick

"I just cleaned out my fridge and this hits so hard."

"I went from full fridge to basically condiments. I was not proud of what I saw."

- h3yw00d

"I cleaned out my grandpa's fridge a week ago and found mustard in there that expired in 2016..."

- UnicornT-Rex

Cool To Heat

"I think bagels."

"I mean you heat them up. Why would I cool them just to then heat em up again??"

- SubstantialLie366

Buy Less

"Most people in this this thread buy more than they should and refrigerate things to make them last longer. Instead, buy less."

- CivilizedEightyFiver

American Hurricanes

"American cheese food product."

"Read that again carefully before setting your cheese slices on the counter."

"Cheese needs to be refrigerated. Cheese food product does not."

"Learned that surprising fact after Hurricane Irene triggered a nearly $300K food fight of grocery store staff dumping refrigeration loss spoilage."

- thatsharkchick

So what fridge-food hill are you totally willing to die on?

Join the food fight in the comments.