The contaminants attracted to leftovers could wind up making you sick.
Could dangerous bacteria be lurking in your refrigerator?
To find out, Los Angeles homeowner Yvonne Condes invited food safety expert Donny Yoo into her house to inspect her fridge.
“I’m a little nervous about you looking in my refrigerator, but I would love to know what we should do to be safer,” Condes told Yoo.
He spotted trouble right away as he noticed an open container of a leftover smoothie.
“It’s definitely a health concern," Yoo said. "You want to cover this with plastic wrap or put the original lid on it."
He said that if “it is a ready-to-eat food, it can get exposed to bacteria,” and should be covered.
There was another health violation in cold cut turkey that appeared slimy and smelled bad.
Yoo says the slimy texture is actually the result of "toxins." Turkey meat, he says, can generally be kept for up to seven days.
Fish should not be left for more than three or four days.
Yoo also noticed barbeque sauce that has been expired for a year.
When Condes asked whether the date on the bottle was just a suggestion, he said it is a “good idea" to follow the expiration date.
"They put it there for a reason,” he added.
In the freezer, he found an open bag of frozen waffles that will have to be tossed because it wasn't sealed and was therefore exposed to possible contaminants.
Another tip is that foods that have been cooked and then cooled in the fridge should be reheated to at least 165 degrees.
Yvonne says that she found the tips so helpful that she will put them on her popular website, MomsLA.com.
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