Get your kitchen BBQ ready: how to store food in your fridge

Firstly, select 3°C as your ideal fridge running temperature. This should ensure that even if fully your fridge is full, it is able to maintain a temperature below 5°C - the maximum temperature recommended by food.gov.uk for food safety. The digital display on many Siemens appliances make this easy to manage.

Many fridges run at temperatures of 8°C which is the point at which spoilage bacteria start to become active so ensuring a lower temperature will keep your food safe. Introduction of room temperature food to a fridge at 8°C can see the food rising to at least 10°C very rapidly.

We all make the mistake of using our fridges to store beverages, which only require chilling to serve. If you are short of space in your fridge only chill drinks for 1 hour before serving, you can help this by using the superCool setting for that hour to keep the temperature constant.

Jams, chutneys and sauces typically suggest storing in a fridge once opened but if you have a vacuum packer you could re-seal these instead. Alternatively, decant into small air-tight containers that will stack more readily, or freeze items like pesto or BBQ sauces that you may only use every 2-3 weeks.­­­­­­

Trigger superCool and superFreeze functions while you are out shopping via the Home Connect App to manage the temperature down to ensure room temperature products do not raise the inner temperature of the appliance and cause spoilage to food already in your fridge and/or freezer.

Home Connect can also advise if your appliance temperature rises or if the door is left open, via your phone. So you can find out quickly if you have left the door open or if someone else at home has even while you are away from home. The Home Connect app also allows you to alter the temperatures on some models’ chiller drawers which is great for storing your marinating meats.

Temperature control is also important for defrosting food, especially meats. Never bring meat from the freezer to room temperature to defrost. This allows the food to sit in the danger temperature zone of 8°C-63°C where bacteria multiplies rapidly.

Remember bacteria is only stopped from multiplying by freezing, not killed off so defrosting will restart the bacterial growth. Fridge defrosting will take longer but should keep the bacterial growth to an absolute minimum.

Cooking defrosted food for your BBQ should be carefully carried out to ensure the food is fully cooked for food safety. If you are griddling, pre-heat the griddle plate for 2-3 minutes before starting to cook.

Remember that freezing food can be done right up to the use by date but not beyond. One tenth of all meat purchased ends up as waste when people forget this important fact.

Ensure food to be frozen is well packed in freezer bags or vacuum packed as sandwich bags and cling-film are not strong enough to protect food from freezer burn. Vacuum packing marinating foods works well so try bulk purchase and make up larger quantities and freeze so they are partway ready for the next BBQ.

Remember you can always defrost foods in a microwave if you want to BBQ in a hurry. Top tip, always label any foods frozen and try to remind yourself when to use them by, high salt items like gammon, bacon and sausages should be used within 3 months, raw meats can be kept frozen for 6 months or 12 months if vacuum packed.

When freezing your own ready meals, reduce the temperature rapidly using cold water or ice blocks to assist, ensure food to freeze is well wrapped and labelled. It is possible for frozen raw meat to be frozen again once cooked as it has been through a cooking process which should have killed off the bacteria. Raw meat should never be re-frozen without a cooking process.

Let us hope for a glorious summer and a lot of BBQs but remember your griddle plate will give you the same tasty results if the weather spoils your plans.