Your Hotel Mini Fridge May Not Be a Real Fridge
Have you ever stuck the leftovers of a restaurant in a hotel’s mini-fridge and wondered the next morning why it’s so…warm? You don’t imagine. Refrigerators in hotels are often set to a temperature that keeps drinks cool but not cold enough to keep food or medicine out of the “danger zone”.
How cold does a hotel fridge need to be to keep food safe?
When it comes to food safety, perishable foods (including cooked foods like restaurant leftovers) should never be in the “danger zone” for more than two hours. This zone is between 40 degrees and 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Food is safe while it’s hot (so you can leave something to simmer in the slow cooker for hours), and it’s usually safe when it’s in the fridge because your home fridge is probably set below 40 degrees. (The lower the better, as long as the food doesn’t freeze—adjust the refrigerator temperature to the mid-30s to keep food longer .)
If a hotel refrigerator is 40 degrees or higher, and many are, you shouldn’t rely on it to keep food cold enough for safe consumption. Bacteria can thrive in the hazardous area and you may end up with coarse, spoiled food. In the worst case, you can get food poisoning .
Why is my hotel mini fridge so warm?
When hotel management decides which refrigerators to put in their rooms, they think about energy consumption (colder refrigerators use more electricity) and noise (the sound of a refrigerator running can annoy guests). They probably also convince themselves that people are basically just chilling drinks and don’t care about food safety.
And here we get that the hotel staff are rehearsing the phrase that your room has a “cooler” and not a refrigerator . Or laugh on forums at hotel guests who are surprised when the refrigerator works differently than their home refrigerator. “I get complaints about refrigerators once a week on average,” notes one. Things get even worse: The latest trend in hotel refrigerators is a snooze feature that turns off the refrigerator for 8 hours while you sleep.
Now not every hotel refrigerator maintains a temperature that is unsafe for food. If you have one that really keeps your food cold and maybe has a small freezer compartment upstairs, you’re in luck. But if the mini fridge feels warm and turning it up ( or down? ) doesn’t help, it’s not your imagination, it’s a refrigerator.
What to do if the refrigerator in the hotel does not maintain the temperature
If you are storing medicines, breast milk, or anything else that needs to be kept at a certain temperature for health reasons, hotels will usually tell you that you can bring your stuff to the table and they will store it for you in a real place. refrigerator or freezer in the work area. Not the most convenient, but it is an option as a last resort.
If you haven’t left on your trip yet, consider taking a thermometer with you so you can determine if your refrigerator is actually holding food-safe temperatures. You can also contact the hotel before booking to make sure you get a real fridge if you need one. A hotel room that offers a fully equipped kitchen or kitchenette will most likely have a real refrigerator, but check to be sure.
Stuck with a warm mini fridge isn’t the end of the world when it comes to food safety, but you’ll have to do some extra work. If you’re grocery shopping, choose foods that don’t spoil as quickly. Hard cheeses keep quite well, as do butter and yogurt (although yogurt can become more acidic over time). Milk, meat and seafood , on the other hand, are dangerous. You can also buy frozen food and let it thaw in the refrigerator; those leftover ice crystals will give you a bit of time before the whole item is warm enough to go bad.
You can also use the ice machine in the lobby. If you have a bottle of medicine or a small item that needs to be chilled, fill an ice bucket, put your jewelry inside, then put it all in the mini fridge and keep the door as closed as possible . The warm temperature inside the refrigerator will not stop the ice from melting, but the ice (as well as chilled food or medicine) will stay there much longer than just lying on the counter.