Just realized my walk-in cooler might be the reason my produce keeps dying early

Had a chat with a produce vendor yesterday at the farmers market, and he asked how old my cooler was. Told him I thought it was from 2018. He said if it's hitting 41 degrees instead of 38 it's killing shelf life. Checked my temp logs and I've been averaging 40.5 for the last three months. He said every degree above 38 can cut lettuce life by 2 days. Anyone else ever had a cooler that slowly drifted warmer without you noticing until your food waste numbers jumped?

2 comments

2 Comments

drew_thomas914d ago

Oh man, I had a fridge at my old apartment that did the same thing, started running like 5 degrees warmer and I just thought my food was going bad faster in the summer.

faitha4014d ago

Used to think fridges just got old and slowed down, no big deal. But then I started tracking temps with a cheap thermometer and realized a 5 degree drift means your milk is basically sitting in the danger zone all day. Not worth the gamble on food poisoning. Now I check mine every few months just to be sure.