RVers Health
Is your RV refrigerator making you sick?
Russ and Tina DeMaris

They say an army travels on its stomach. I can speak for a lot of RVers that I know--we are an army. Reaching into the chilled recesses of my RV's refrigerator and grabbing something cold to drink or snack on is something I really love about the lifestyle. Your kitchen is always there.

Reefer madness? Image: R & T DeMaris

But hang on, "You don’t have to go to a restaurant or to a party to get sick," said Fur-Chin Chen, Ph.D., a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee. He found a variety of pathogens in a quarter of the refrigerators he inspected during a recent study. Vegetable bins were the most contaminated.

While the study was based on home refrigerators, it seems like sometimes when we're away from home, we may get a bit less fussy about some things. Is your RV reefer safer than the one back home? Well here's some cold food for thought.

"There is a disconnect between food safety practices and people’s confidence in preparing foods safely. It’s very hard to change behaviors," said Danielle Schor, R.D., and a senior vice president of the food safety division of the International Food Information Council (IFIC), a nonprofit organization that addresses consumer education.

IFIC has taken up issue of safe-refrigeration cause with a customized campaign. The campaign’s main message to consumers is to purchase thermometers, keep refrigerator temperatures at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below, and monitor several times a day.

Aside from throwing out ready-to-eat foods by package storage dates, refrigerators need a weekly cleaning, a practice that consumers avoid. One study shows that approximately 50 percent of consumers clean their refrigerators once a month. But because consumers fail to clean thoroughly, scientists say that figure is likely exaggerated.