12 Surprising Foods You Should Never Keep in Your Refrigerator

Refrigerators are great for ensuring your groceries don't go bad, but for some foods, a cold chamber might actually do the opposite.

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Food preservation is something we humans have been doing for generations, and it’s safe to say the process of refrigeration has made that task so much easier. According to a blog by Whirlpool, William Cullen is credited as the first person to demonstrate artificial refrigeration via evaporative cooling in 1748. Jacob Perkins would later invent the first vapor compression system for refrigerators in 1834.

By the late 1800s, iceboxes became popular. These were insulated metal or wooden cabinet-type structures that housed large blocks of ice to keep food cool and preserved. The first home electric refrigerator wouldn’t be invented until years later, in 1913, thanks to a man named Fred W. Wolf. Mass production of domestic refrigerators would get underway by 1918 when William C. Durant introduced the first home refrigerator with a self-contained compressor.

However, even as of 2024, it seems there is still more to learn about refrigeration and food preservation. According to appliance manufacturer General Electric (GE), there are several foods that have no business chilling in your refrigerator. Some of these actually surprised me a bit, and they might surprise you too. If you want to get the most out of your grocery haul, check out the full list below:

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I'll be the first to admit that I've had about half of the above items in my refrigerator at one time or another. As someone who absolutely cannot stand wasting produce or other groceries, I definitely won't be making those mistakes again. The term "right tool for the right job" comes to mind, but rather, it's more like "right storage for the right food." I suppose the refrigerator giveth, and the refrigerator taketh away.