There’s a great reason why you shouldn’t keep milk on the shelf of your fridge door

It might be handy but it’s not exactly healthy.

The door of one’s fridge is often the first place you’ll find a couple of litres of milk, but those of us guilty of storing it there have been doing it all wrong, it would appear. According to a recent Good Housekeeping guide on how to organise your fridge, door shelves are far from ideal for storing milk as, being the warmest area of the fridge, it’s most susceptible to temperature fluctuations. The drawer shelves, according to the guide, should instead be used to store foods that have natural preservatives, such as condiments, jams and juice. Milk, on the other hand, should be stored on lower and middle shelves along with other dairy products such as cheese, yoghurt and butter. The guide contains plenty of useful tips that many might deem obvious and many others might never have heard of before, such as NEVER putting hot food in the fridge (it will cause the overall temperature to rise and can lead to food poisoning and food spoilage) and keeping raw and cooked foods separate from each other. Consumers are also advised to keep eggs in the middle of the fridge, where their temperature will remain consistent and to keep wrapped raw meat and fish at the bottom of the fridge – the coldest part – to reduce the risk of cross-contamination. More handy tips are available to read in the guide here; sure, some of them might seem as clear as day, but no doubt there are some of you who’ve been doing it wrong all along and will be glad of the advice.