News and Events

Food safety fears in student fridges

3 October 2008

A BU study has highlighted the serious food safety risks involved in shared student refrigerators.

With nearly 40,000 new students starting at university later this month, many moving away from home for the first time, BU food safety experts are warning freshers of the potential risks caused by sharing fridges.

A study conducted by Philippa Hudson, Senior Lecturer in Food Safety from our School of Services Management, has shown that first-year undergraduates have an increased risk of illness, contracted from eating contaminated food or beverages, due to the sharing of refrigerator space and poor food storage.

The study revealed that majority of students operate a 'shelf each' system to allocate refrigerator space within communal households, which often means that raw foods, including meat, are stored next to each other. There was also evidence of over-packing in 92% of fridges and cross-contamination in 88% of fridges.

Philippa says: "First year undergraduates are usually provided with a standard-sized fridge and therefore space tends to be divided by allocating each member of the household a shelf in which to store all their food.

"Unfortunately the risks are high with the 'shelf each' space allocation, but over-packing also increases the risks of cross-contamination."

Students are recommended to keep all raw meat/poultry in clean sealed containers, which can be labelled, on the bottom shelf of the fridge so it cant touch or drip onto other food. Food from opened tin cans should be emptied into a container and placed in the fridge, and students should check the fridge regularly to ensure food is fresh and/or are used by the best before date. Where possible, food that needs to be refrigerated should be bought 'little and often', to ensure that fridges are not over-packed and to stop food wastage.