Keeping lettuce fresh and preventing a frozen-solid gallon of milk is a delicate balancing act. Maybe you keep the butter in the back. If your refrigerator is going to freeze something, it might as well be a resilient sacrificial offering.
Since I'm not one to waste food, I set about finding my fridge's Goldilocks zone: the setting that keeps everything in the perfect (or as close to perfect as possible) temperature range. What better way than to test the temperatures of various fridge zones on every setting that the machine offers?
Here's how everything went down.
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What temperature should a fridge be?
Before I can determine the best temperature setting for my fridge, we need to know what constitutes a safe temperature for storing food. John Carlsen/CNET
The general scientific consensus is that a refrigerator's temperature should be 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) or below to control bacterial growth without freezing sensitive foods.
Likewise, your freezer should be set to 0°F (minus 18°C) or lower. While you might think that any temperature below 32 degrees F (0 degrees C) is sufficient, there's a good reason to target a lower temperature. This ensures that food stays frozen even when you open the freezer, add unfrozen items and experience short power outages. Understandably, items also freeze more quickly in lower temperatures, which can reduce ice crystal formation.
I ran the tests using real-world conditions
When storing food in your refrigerator, ensure it falls within the safe temperature range for food storage. John Carlsen/CNET
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