What Temperature Should My Refrigerator Be Set At

The ideal temperature range for your fridge is 35 to 38 degrees fahrenheit.

The safe refrigerator temperature range in the main compartment is 40 degrees fahrenheit or below with 37 degrees fahrenheit being considered the optimal for holding foods cold. The ideal temperature settings for the freezer and refrigerator compartments are 19 c and 3 c 2 f and 38 f. Your refrigerator s most important goal is to slow the growth of bacteria without freezing your food. It s not uncommon for refrigerators to be a few degrees off the mark you set.

Freezing usually doesn t do good things to the taste and texture of your food but you want to keep things as cold as possible without actually freezing. The fda recommends keeping your refrigerator at or below 40 f 4 c and your freezer at 0 f 18 c to keep your food fresh the longest and prevent the growth of bacteria that could cause. If you re experiencing temperature fluctuations read our guide to troubleshooting a fridge. Place a refrigerator thermometer inside the main compartment to track the temperature.

If the temperature in the freezer and refrigerator compartment is too high or too low manual temperature adjustment is necessary. How to adjust the temperature. Unfortunately not all fridge temp gauges are accurate. You may have your fridge set to 37 f but it s actually keeping temps around 33 f or even 41 f.