We often encounter such a common problem when food begins to spoil, but we are not able to remove it right now: various business trips, unexpected guests and other inconveniences.
Most often this product is meat or fish, the smell of which lingers in the refrigerator and apartment for a long time. What to do about it and what to do is described in this article.
How to remove the stench from spoiled meat using improvised means?
There are many ways described on the Internet to get rid of the smell of rotten meat, but not all of these methods are effective and help cope with the problem.
Advice! Surely every housewife has vinegar, mustard and soda in her house - these are some of those folk remedies that cope well with the task.
Vinegar
This caustic and odorous substance, as we can see, helps in many similar situations: removing the most difficult stains on clothes, treating surfaces in the house, cooking, where it reacts with soda.
In other words, it can be used in many ways. If after cleaning the refrigerator the unpleasant smell still bothers you, you can prepare a vinegar solution.
You just need to dilute one spoon of vinegar in a glass of water. Take any cloth and soak it in the resulting solution, then go over the entire surface of the refrigerator, paying special attention to the shelves, walls and trays where spoiled food was stored. When finished, open the refrigerator doors and leave to ventilate for a couple of hours.
If the smell of rotten meat is too strong, then in its place you can put a cloth soaked in vinegar for a while, and then wash off the residue with water.
Important! Highly concentrated vinegar can damage the enamel and plastic of household appliances, so carefully read the acidity percentage.
This article will tell you how to clean a refrigerator with vinegar.
Citric acid or lemon
If you don’t have vinegar on hand, it didn’t help in this situation, or the stench still remains in the apartment, then you can use citric acid or lemon itself instead - it doesn’t really matter which of these two, it all depends on the availability of fruit in your refrigerator .
We work according to the same scheme as with vinegar. You need to take a glass of water, then add a teaspoon of citric acid or lemon juice. After thoroughly stirring the resulting solution, you need to apply it to a napkin and wipe the surfaces of the refrigerator.
The remaining lemon can be cut into a couple of slices and placed in the refrigerator to completely neutralize the odor for two or three days. Sometimes you can use vodka instead of water; they say that this way the smell will go away faster and more effectively. The solution proportion is 1:10.
Citric acid will help clean the dishwasher, iron and coffee machine.
Mustard
Hot spice can also help us get rid of stench and rotten smell, so it can be used as a neutralizer.
Application: moisten dry mustard (in powder form) and dilute in hot water. The sharper the aroma of the solution, the better it will work on the rotten smell. This mixture destroys bacteria and eliminates odors well.
Apply to all surfaces and leave for half an hour, then rinse off the residue with water. After this treatment there will no longer be a smell of rotten meat.
Potassium permangantsovka
A solution of potassium permanganate is perfect as a solution to this problem. You just need to make it in a slightly pink shade, not too concentrated so that the surface of the equipment does not become stained. A few crystals are enough for this. Leave the product for 1-2 hours, then rinse with water.
Soda solution
Baking soda absorbs odors very well, which is why it is often used as a neutralizer. Usually, an open pack is simply poured into a more suitable container - a plate or some other dish - and then left dry for two to three hours.
Why is soda sometimes diluted with water? In this form it is more effective. We work, in principle, as with other products; if the smell is not removed, then we will have to use other options. We carefully go over all surfaces, and then wash off the residue with water.
Advice! To quickly remove the disgusting smell of rotten meat products, pour soda into half a lemon or orange, from which the pulp has first been removed.
Laundry soap
Laundry soap can be found in every home; it easily kills bacteria and germs, leaves a neutral odor, and fights stench perfectly. You can apply it to a cloth and then go over each shelf and door. It is not recommended to leave it for a long time, otherwise the aroma of the disinfectant itself will appear, which will be strongly absorbed.
A more effective method: grate the piece on a coarse grater, then soak it in warm water. Lubricate the doors, shelves and drawers with the resulting mixture, leaving it like that for an hour and a half, then remove excess and stains with a damp cloth. This method can remove a slight meaty smell.
Traditional folk remedies
For a long time, when there were no special household chemicals, our grandmothers used folk recipes to get rid of the smell of rotten meat. In the modern world there are a lot of different chemicals, but most housewives still give preference to folk remedies. How can you remove the rotten smell from the refrigerator using folk remedies?
Traditional or as they are also called “folk remedies” include:
- vinegar, vinegar essence;
- baking soda;
- ammonia or ammonia;
- lemon;
- activated or charcoal;
- soap solution;
- toothpaste.
Folk remedies for cleaning the refrigerator are harmless to use.
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How to eliminate using household chemicals?
When improvised means do not help, you have to turn to professional household chemicals. You just need to work with it as carefully as possible, wearing gloves. Modern chemistry can remove about 96% of contaminants. The main list of current remedies that, according to the majority on the Internet, help:
EdelWeiss
A strong detergent that can clean the refrigerator from any stain and remove the most disgusting odors. It contains no alkalis or various acids.
EFSTO
An affordable product for quickly cleaning a refrigerator, but despite all its shortcomings, it copes well with unpleasant odors.
Limpiya
Cleans surfaces efficiently without leaving streaks or foreign odors. The only drawback is that it is very difficult to find on sale.
Causes of unpleasant odor
Before getting rid of an unpleasant smell in the refrigerator, they look for its cause. There may be several of them:
- The new device is characterized by technical odors: grease, plastic or metal. They should disappear in a couple of weeks without your intervention. If they do not disappear, you need to contact a service center. Maybe it's a marriage
- A clogged drain hole can occur if the power was turned off for a while, but complete cleaning was not carried out. The ice could melt, escape as water into the drain hole and remain there. In this case, the stagnant water rots and begins to stink. But not everyone knows where to find the drain hole. It is usually located in the center of the back wall of the refrigerator compartment. You can find out the location in the instructions for the refrigerator. Clean it with a wooden stick or soft wire if it cannot be reached with a stick. Then pour the cleaning solution using an enema or funnel.
- Products that have passed their expiration date spoil and then begin to decompose. This can happen with both opened and packaged foods.
- If the temperature in the chambers is set incorrectly, that is, above normal, the likelihood of odor formation increases. For the refrigerator compartment, the optimal value will be +5°C.
- The fresh zone, zero zone or boxes may collect food residues that have not been noticed. They rot and a not very strong but unpleasant odor immediately appears.
- The products were in the refrigerator, which did not work for a long time. The same will happen if an empty, but not cleaned and not dried device is stored with the doors closed. There is a musty smell that is difficult to get rid of
- The product itself may be fine, but the packaging may be dirty. This could be a bag stained with milk that spilled from a burst container. Such packaging will emit an unpleasant aroma, but it can be difficult to understand the cause.
- Storing loosely packaged foods with a strong unpleasant odor: herring, garlic
- The ventilation system has deteriorated
If a house is undergoing major renovations, the smell of paint often gets inside the refrigerator. It is absorbed by the products that are there. Don't wait for this to happen. Before you start painting, it is better to remove food from it or move the refrigerator to another location.
How to remove amber from the freezer?
The consequences of rotten meat affect not only the refrigerator itself, but also the freezer, which, upon opening, obviously will not smell of roses and lavender (of course, if you yourself did not freeze the flowers right there).
Therefore, it is important to know that it is necessary to wash the freezer after disposing of spoiled food! And in the freezer itself, food can easily spoil: the door is not closed completely and the food has time to defrost, or the expiration date has expired again.
Advice! Pack in cling film, then the possibility of spoiling the product is minimal.
First of all, we disconnect the equipment from the network, and then remove all food from the freezer: various frozen vegetables, berries, meat, etc. Again, we analyze the full scale of the disaster and decide where attention is most needed.
For cleaning, it is best to use dishwashing detergent and a simple cloth and sponge. We carefully go over the entire surface, erasing all visible and invisible traces of food. Pay more attention to the pan - the place where all the water drains after defrosting.
To completely clean, wipe the inside with a vinegar solution and leave to air for an hour or two. Some housewives use citric acid or juice, which is also ideal.
Prevention Tips
In order for such incidents to happen as rarely as possible, it is necessary to follow a number of prevention recommendations:
- Products with strong odors should be stored tightly closed or wrapped in film.
- Wipe up any spilled liquid (milk, juice, broth, etc.) immediately, and do not put it off until general cleaning.
- Check the overall freshness of food every three days, more often in hot weather. This will help you avoid rotten meat, fruits and vegetables, and identify sour milk by removing it from the refrigerator in time.
- Wash old refrigerators once a month, with a self-defrosting system - once every six months.
Table. Shelf life of food in the refrigerator
| The product's name | Shelf life |
| Red bell pepper | 2 days |
| Parsley | 2 days |
| cucumbers | 2 days |
| Leaf salad | 1 day |
| Fresh fish | 1 day |
| Salty fish | 3 months |
| Marinated fish | 3 months |
| Fried fish | 2 days |
| Hot smoked fish | 2 days |
| Fresh poultry | 2 days |
| Fresh meat | 1 day |
| Canned stewed meat | 6 days |
| Boiled sausage | 2 days |
| Sausages | 1 day |
| Cutlets | 1 day |
| Soup | 2 days |
| Cream cakes | 2 days |
| Sterilized milk | 4 days |
| Pasteurized milk | 3 days |
| Kefir | 1 day |
| Cheese | 10 days |
| Cottage cheese | 3 days |
| Eggs | 2 weeks |
Professional odor absorbers
And there are situations when none of the listed methods work, or you don’t want to waste time and effort on washing the shelves when they are clean, but you need to remove the smell.
In such cases, odor neutralizers are used - they are also professional absorbers that do their job in not too long a time. They vary in composition, type and period of time, but they always do an excellent job of eliminating the stench from the refrigerator.
Important! Although many still confuse odor absorbers with simple air fresheners, which makes the situation even worse: instead of removing the smell, they simply “mask” it, and sometimes they are simply mixed with an unpleasant stench.
Absorbers with activated charcoal
Absorbers with a similar composition are very easy to use. Activated carbon is able to eliminate odors such as garlic, rotten foods, onions and cheese, making such absorbers very popular.
In order to eliminate odors, you simply need to open the protective layer (they are usually sold in small plastic boxes) and place it in a convenient place in the refrigerator where it will not be particularly in the way: be it a door or a shelf.
After some time (usually it takes from 3 to 7 hours), the stench should completely disappear. It can be used for a month, but overuse is not recommended.
The main advantages of this option: the price is not too high, especially since it does not take much effort and time.
Mineral absorbents
The gel absorber is made of safe mineral and carbon adsorbents, is environmentally friendly, and is designed to eliminate unpleasant odors in the refrigerator compartment.
Important! Thanks to their interesting shape, gel balls allow air to circulate freely, thereby speeding up the process of absorbing unpleasant odors by half compared to other absorbers.
The main service life is 1.5 months, it must be fixed on a convenient surface inside the refrigerator, the effect appears after 3-5 hours. Main advantages: quick effect and long shelf life.
Absorber with silica gel
It is often used not only in the kitchen, but also in the toilet, bathroom, and other places where the smell is not the most pleasant. It is suitable for eliminating the stench from the refrigeration chamber, but no better than the same onion, which we will talk about a little later.
The silica gel used here is a dried gel. But it is also dangerous because it is extremely explosive and fire hazardous, so most products are used exclusively in bathrooms: there is only water and there is no threat of high temperature. In its simple form, silica gel is dangerous to health, in particular to the lungs, but in absorbers this disadvantage is completely neutralized.
Sold in small bags, shaped like a small ball, we often see them in new shoes, which is why it looks identical in everyday life. They buy it in portions, that is, not one or two bags, but five to ten pieces per refrigerator size; for an average one, five is enough. The absorber is changed every three weeks.
Multifunctional ozonizer
Scientists have proven that at low temperatures bacteria simply slow down their reproduction, but they have also proven that ozone destroys all types of viruses and bacteria, which is why the multifunctional ozonator has become popular in the world.
Attention! This technique also saturates vegetables and fruits with oxygen, complementing them with a brighter taste, and also neutralizes pesticides, chlorine, toxic chemicals, parasites and simpler microorganisms.
The ozonator easily copes with the problem of unpleasant odors; one ozonation session is enough. It doesn’t take up much space in the refrigerator—about the size of a yoghurt box—and it runs on batteries that need to be changed once a month, which is quite beneficial. Works without power supply.
Do you use odor absorbers?
Not really
What to do first
As soon as you notice a stench coming from your refrigerator, the first thing you need to do is find the source of the stench and throw it away. After this, you should turn off the power to the device and begin cleaning it. We remove all products. We take out all removable parts (shelves, drawers, metal elements). First, wash the more contaminated areas with a weak soap solution or soda. Vinegar essence also works well against odors and bacteria in the refrigerator. We wipe the camera with a damp cloth and then with a napkin. The last stage of cleaning is to inspect the products not only on the shelves, but also in the refrigerator door.
After eliminating the source of the odor in the refrigerator, you need to move on to wet cleaning.
To defrost the freezer more effectively and quickly, you need to place a bowl of hot water in the freezer. The ice crust will fall off quite quickly, do not forget to change this water periodically.
IMPORTANT! Bananas should be stored at room temperature. If you store them in the refrigerator, the fruits and vegetables lying next to them will quickly spoil.
Before you start cleaning your refrigerator, you first need to defrost it.
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What home remedies can you put inside?
If the smell is not too strong, and you are too lazy or unable to tinker with the above procedures, then you can use one of the “grandmother’s” methods, available at home almost everywhere. To eliminate mild bad odors, you can use the most common products that are probably found in every home.
Activated carbon
As previously reported: activated carbon can actually eliminate unpleasant odors from cheeses, onions and garlic. Try placing a plate of crushed activated carbon tablets on it for five hours, after which you may notice at least some difference. Can be used instead of a charcoal absorber, but this option is less effective.
Rye bread
Believe it or not, this is also an effective method to get rid of a slight stench in the refrigerator. After cutting it into equal slices, place one on each shelf, and then come back after three to four hours. Of course, the larger the refrigerator, the more baking you will need.
Coffee for flavoring
As you know, coffee has pleasant aromatic properties, but in addition it perfectly absorbs terrible odors. Pour the grains into an open jar or large plate, then refrigerate for 3-4 hours. Coffee will absorb all the bad odors, replacing them with its own aroma.
Onion
Surprisingly, this fragrant vegetable, which often brings cooks to tears, is actually capable of eliminating unpleasant odors. It's all about its skin, which perfectly absorbs the stench.
Just don’t rely too much on this option, because it will only work with a slight smell. Peel it and cut it into slices, leave it in this state in the refrigerator for several hours.
Important! Natural absorbents must be changed every three days.
Citrus peel
After eating an orange or lemon, do not rush to throw away the peel, because it can be used as a neutralizer. Citrus peels have an interesting ability to “absorb” foreign odors, making them great as a natural absorbent.
Advice! You need to place the peel on a plate, leaving it on a shelf in the refrigerator for about 5 hours, after which the result will pleasantly surprise you.
Do you use home remedies for refrigerator odors?
Not really
As we have already understood, there are many ways to get rid of unpleasant odors in our refrigerator. Some of them work great, while others cope only with less difficulty, although we still prefer household appliances.
In order to have fewer and fewer such cases, you need to follow simple recommendations, and then there will be no need for vinegar with potassium permanganate.
Population of the drainage system
We should also talk about problems with condensate drainage. In modern capillary (crying) and No-Frost refrigerators, it accumulates in a special container. It is located at the bottom, near the back wall.
To allow the condensation to evaporate, a small fan is installed near the container to blow out air. The flow carries away a small amount of moisture and the tray does not overfill. In addition, water evaporates due to the temperature from the operating compressor (refrigerator motor).
Microbes need two things to live and reproduce:
- High humidity;
- Warm.
Here's how one of the visitors to a popular forum solved the problem of smell in the refrigerator.
If the fan stops working for some reason, moisture accumulates in the tray and the humidity in the container increases greatly. Microorganisms inhabit it and produce an unpleasant odor. Through the drainage tube it enters the chamber and freezer of the refrigerator.
Sometimes a blockage forms in the drain (pieces of food can get into it through the hole). It is constantly wetted and colonies of microbes appear in it. Their waste products make the inside of the refrigerator smell fragrant. This is also one of the reasons for the accumulation of water under the drawers in the refrigerator.
To eliminate odors from the refrigerator, you need to clean the drainage tube and wash the condensate container. At the same time, check whether the fan is working and whether anything is blocking the air flow . We also recommend watching a video on how to break through a clogged drain hole:
