‘When in doubt, throw it out,’ says microbiologist of food left in office fridges for weeks

As some employees return or get set to return to work soon, they may come across some nasty surprises in their company refrigerators: Mouldy, rotten food and drinks.

University of Saskatchewan microbiologist Dr. Joseph Blondeau says the food that’s sprouting a myriad of mould can cause food poisoning that may result in vomiting, diarrhea, cramping or an upset stomach.

Fungus spores that might be growing can also quickly become aerosolized, causing a possible allergic reaction.

“If you’re going back to the workplace after some degree of absenteeism, particularly in this COVID situation, and you have foodstuffs in your refrigerator,” says Blondeau, “the safest thing to do is throw them out and start from scratch.”

Basic cleaning products can be used to clean and disinfect the shelves and walls. He suggests, however, that simply wiping it all down once is not good enough.

“If you’re the first one back in the workplace and you’re not sure what’s in the refrigerator, you just might want to exercise a little bit of caution if you’re the one who’s going to be the one who is opening it up and cleaning it out …,” Blondeau said. “I would say wiping down a surface is probably not enough. You’ll probably want to wipe it down a couple of times.”

Blondeau adds that even if there’s some food in the fridge that somehow is not past its expiration date, it should be thrown out because of the possibility of cross-contamination. Ice cubes should also be thrown out and water dispensers thoroughly cleaned.

“I wouldn’t trust anything,” he said. “Just because you don’t know how that refrigerator has been maintained or sitting there in this COVID shutdown and it’s just not worth the risk.”

Cupboards should also be cleaned out in case mice or bugs of some sort have got into them.

And if there’s something that looks so bad you just don’t want to risk touching it even with gloves on, Blondeau suggests calling public health to get an opinion on what you should do next.

“It’s all about risk mitigation,” he said.