To say that people who put their tomato sauce/ketchup in the fridge are plain wrong.

[Salmotrutta]

They just are.

There is no need.

Similarly, the deluded people who put eggs in the fridge are wrong.

Eggs are best left at room temperature.

Fact.

And don't get me started on butter...

Our eggs go in the fridge. I go through phases of eating loads then none, and they last loads longer in the fridge. I've used eggs with a ubd of a month earlier and they've been fine!

Ketchup in the fridge for the same reason. It lasts longer.

Marmite otoh lasts years wherever you store it! My mum found an opened jar last year that went out of date in the90s (when I moved out) and it was fine!

koala my PILs do this too. I fear we may be related.

When I first went round and saw 'open cheese' on the calendar my OH choked from my innocently asking "why do you have to open cheese on a specific date? "

ignoring unicorns...
i keep mine in the fridge, i know it contains vinegar, but not knowing how much vinegar a product needs to be called a preserve, and nowhere on the front of my bottle of ketchup is the word preserve.
I presume it is just a flavouring so believe the bottle.

But then i also keep all pickles, chutneys and jams in the fridge it makes it easier for people to know which are started and which aren't.

Yanbu

I don't like tomato sauce but my kids do and I have always kept it in the cupboard.

At 23 and 21 my girls have yet to suffer any ill effects.

No one likes mayonnaise/salad cream so can't comment on that.

I make a lot of my own jam and keep that in the cupboard too.

Ew no!! Nothing worse than dunking a lovely, hot chip into cold, clammy ketchup! Yucky!! Just wrong.

I agree. Hot chips should be dunked in mayo. Yum.

Where I used to live in New Zealand, it could get to 35 degrees so keeping your sauce in the fridge was a must. I guess it's just a habit ??
Keeping chocolate biscuits in the fridge was also common. Melty choccy biccies are not good!

I have it on good authority that they recommend you put ketchup in the fridge as it's a higher traffic area of your kitchen and you're more likely to use it more frequently/buy more frequently.

Ok everyone, brace yourselves...
MY MOTHER KEEPS TINNED FOOD IN THE FRIDGE!!
Unopened ones!
What's that all about? I think she would get in quite well with whole grain mustard/biohazard couple.

Just goes to show that most mumsnetters are middle class. Virtually everyone refers to it as ketchup. Obviously it is red sauce and is stored in the fridge with the brown sauce. I can't get my head round calling it tomato ketchup. That is so wrong. You are all BU for that reason alone.

Eggs and butter out of fridge but tomato sauce I'm the fridge. I don't like the taste of it warm. I keep any opened jars and sauces in the fridge. Most have a high sugar content which is a wonderful breeding ground for bacteria.

If that makes me working class, so be it.

My MIL keeps frozen pizza in the cupboard. Well, it was frozen when she bought it. I try not to eat there.

But doesn't the high sugar content stop the microbes from growing- that is the whole point of ketchup.

Why have I just read all 11 pages of a thread about tomato ketchup? What have I become???

But doesn't the high sugar content stop the microbes from growing

No.

Why have I just read all 11 pages of a thread about tomato ketchup? What have I become???

An expert on ketchup?

rubbishrob0tf course it does- high sugar content cause microbes to become dehydrated due to osmosis- high sugar is an unfriendly environment for microorganisms.

Are you a scientist?

And yet microbes still grow in ketchup. It doesn't have a 'high sugar content'. Jam does, but it will still go mouldy.

Slowing is not the same as stopping.

"microbes" will grow pretty much on anything. It depends on the species. :)
Jams tend to get mouldy on top where there is condensation and the sugar concentration is lowest.
The same goes for open bottles of anything.

I'd rather err on the side of caution. I have space in my fridge, so open bottles of ketchup go there.

MIL keeps ketchup in the cupboard & insists on still buying glass bottles. I think they probably get through one bottle every 3 years. It's a pain to get out of the bottle & tastes really vinegary so I never have any but the dc still ask for it...

Frozen pizza in the cupboard? Please tell me she eats it the day/day after buying it!

oh dear! I keep both ketchup and eggs in the fridge! why? because i happen to like cooled ketchup and there's very little room in my cupboards for eggs and ketchup!

My tomato sauce is safe in the fridge now thanks to this thread. But now I am worried about my butter. Can someone start a thread on butter?

Eggs I am strong on. I know my own mind on eggs.

Tomato sauce needs to be kept in the fridge after opening because Spoilage bacteria once exposed to the air(aerobic ) will start to grow @ temperatures between 5-63.
The fridge temperature should be below 5 therefore the spoilage bacteria that attacks the vinegar and turns it rancid and watery will grow at room temperature. It will not make you ill but your sauce will taste yuk eventually.