How often should you clean your fridge to keep food bacteria away?

For food safety, it's important to stay on top of expired foods and spills and in your refrigerator. Photo by file photo /Getty Images

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Cleaning your refrigerator isn’t the most fun task, but it’s a necessary one, especially when food safety is concerned.

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While it’s important to stay on top of spills and dispose of expired products, you may not have to do a deep clean of this appliance as often as you think.

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Salim Hourieh, founder and CEO of ItsGlo Cleaning in Toronto, says that deep cleaning a fridge every four to six months is sufficient on top of routine cleaning.

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“What we see works best is for people who are not neglecting their fridge and leaving food to expire in their fridge — people who are using it regularly and disposing items as essential — usually once every quarter. Once every four months-ish would be the ideal sweet spot to do the cleaning,” Hourieh said.

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“However, going up to six months is usually OK. Most of our clients … people who care for their home, people who have cleaning services coming in, I’ve seen people request a fridge cleaning every six months.”

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A key part of keeping your fridge tidy and avoiding foodborne illnesses is ensuring that food is properly stored. Health Canada advises that raw meat, poultry, fish and seafood be kept on the bottom shelf of your fridge separately from other foods, either in sealed containers or plastic bags.

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Hourieh also recommends placing cut fruits and vegetables in containers and lining door shelves with paper towels to avoid leaving behind residue that could cause stains.

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“A great tip is basically to place paper towels underneath where you put the (sauce) bottles and just changing that paper towel every now and then,” Hourieh said.

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Several international organizations, including Health Canada, advise that fridges be set at four to five-degrees Celsius or lower to keep food out of the “temperature danger zone,” though one recent study suggests that cleaning may be more important than temperature control when it comes to food safety.

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The study, conducted by the Center for Food Sciences at the University of Veterinary Medicine (Vetmeduni) in Vienna, Austria, examined 45 household fridges and found that only 38 per cent operated below the recommended threshold of 5C, while 24 per cent exceeded 7C — a range that research lead Evelyne Selberherr described as “an unfavorable worst-case scenario in food industry and research.”

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However, the researchers determined that regardless of temperature, fridges that had not been cleaned for extended periods of time had significantly higher amounts of food-associated bacteria.

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“Our findings suggest that simple measures, such as regular cleaning, have a significant impact on microbiological safety,” Selberherr said in a press release from February 2026. “These findings are relevant not only for private households, but also for sensitive supply areas such as hospital kitchens, care facilities and communal catering. Especially in places where particularly vulnerable groups of people are cared for, the microbiological significance of refrigerators should be more strongly integrated into prevention strategies.”

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Hourieh said his company typically uses dish soap when doing a more thorough cleanout of a fridge, but for regular cleaning, a simple mixture of vinegar and water gets the job done.

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“It really is powerful to clean the fridge without leaving any harmful chemical residue that might come on your food,” he said.

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