When was the last time you took a closer look at the fridge in the next coffee kitchen or the break room around the corner? Oh, you might say, there are really more important things to do. That may be, but imagine the following situation: One of your shifts helps itself from the company refrigerator in the break room - and falls ill with salmonella poisoning. The loss of an entire shift is a serious problem for many companies - and would certainly be no small matter for you. But salmonella is not the only problem. Campylobacter, Listeria and E. coli bacteria are particularly prevalent in communal refrigerators, unless someone cleans them regularly and disposes of expired food. 

Real classics in the fridge of horror are mould on yoghurt, sausage and cheese, beverage containers whose contents have been expired for years, generally poor hygiene, for example food residues on the shelves, but also things that really have no business being there, such as medicines, superglue or even hazardous substances.

Fridge hygiene is not hysteria

We find a lot of clean fridges during our inspections, but especially where many people use one appliance or the users change more frequently, the sense of responsibility for cleanliness decreases dramatically. And even if we are indeed serving a cliché now: Our experience shows that there are significantly more complaints in refrigerators used exclusively by men than in tea kitchens with a higher proportion of female users. 

You have a duty of care

From a purely occupational health and safety point of view, refrigerators are fixed technical equipment that you have to check regularly. As with other technical equipment, employers have a duty of care. For you, this means that if you provide a refrigerator, you must ensure that it is cleaned from time to time - whether by employees or cleaning staff. 

It therefore makes sense to establish clear rules of use should you come across refrigerators whose contents could pose a risk to your employees.

Here are our tips:

• Make your staff aware of the issue of fridge hygiene. Many people are certainly not aware of the germs that live in their fridge and how quickly they can make them ill. Once the spirit for more hygiene is awakened, this also increases the willingness to find someone in the team to wipe out the appliance.
• Communicate clear rules. This is especially important if the equipment is used by changing employees, for example assembly staff. Because then the users lose track of the contents particularly quickly. 
• Only food belongs in a refrigerator. Everything else needs a separate place. If you do need to store medicines in a cool place, you should make sure that there are no mix-ups. Medicines, for example, can be packed separately and clearly labelled.
• Have all food clearly labelled with the owner's name. Everything else is disposed of directly. In this way, you avoid having ownerless yoghurt still in the fridge months later because no one knows who it belongs to anymore. 
• If possible, switch to smaller portion sizes for food that is used by several people. Ketchup and mayonnaise bottles in particular like to remain unrefrigerated on tables for longer after a meal - and an interrupted cold chain is the perfect breeding ground for germs.
• Food should never be left open in the refrigerator, but only well closed. It is therefore always better to pack sausage, cheese and the like in tightly sealed plastic containers.

Incidentally, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment states that it is sufficient to wipe out the refrigerator regularly with water and washing-up liquid or vinegar cleaner.