The safest place to store raw poultry is at the bottom of your fridge, which prevents raw chicken juice from dripping onto produce or other food below. If storing your chicken at the bottom of your fridge isn’t an option, keep packages of raw chicken in a large bowl, food storage container, or sheet pan to catch potential leaks and spills.
You’ve just done your weekly grocery shopping. You’re putting groceries away, and out of habit, you put your fruits and vegetables in the crisper drawer, milk and other beverages in the door, and chuck a package of chicken thighs onto the middle shelf of your fridge.
Fine and dandy, right? Well, not really: Storing poultry above produce or other foods (especially ready-to-eat foods that won’t be heated) poses a serious food safety risk, as chicken juices could drip down below, increasing the risk of food poisoning via pathogens such as Salmonella and Campylobacter. It goes against everything I was taught in culinary school while studying for the ServSafe food safety certification: Never store raw poultry above raw produce or ready-made foods.
Surprisingly, many home cooks are unaware of this rule. When I visit friends and family, I almost always see a package or two of raw chicken sitting in the middle of their fridge, hanging out above berries they plan to stir into their yogurt or oatmeal. According to ServSafe guidelines, the safest way to store food in your fridge is to organize it on shelves based on the temperature the food needs to be held to be safe for consumption.
Based on Servsafe rules, your fridge should be organized from top to bottom as follows: Prepared foods, such as potato salad, cooked greens, or leftovers, should be placed at the very top; then raw seafood, whole cuts of beef and pork, ground meat and fish; and finally, whole and ground raw poultry. This storage method prevents cross-contamination, since any leaks from the raw foods above will only fall onto foods that must be cooked to higher, bacteria-killing temperatures. In short, the higher the temperature a food must be cooked to for safety, the lower it should be stored.
ServSafe’s recommendation doesn’t really account for fresh produce. That’s likely because a restaurant usually has a separate section of the walk-in fridge or an entirely different fridge dedicated to produce. Because that isn’t an option for most home cooks, I recommend keeping produce not in the crisper drawer—which is often recommended—but next to the cooked food above any raw poultry or meat. I have three crisper drawers: two next to one another, and another directly on top. I keep produce in the top drawer, cheeses, cured meats, and eggs in one of the lower drawers, and reserve another one of the lower drawers for raw poultry and other raw proteins.
If you don’t feel like rearranging your fridge, you can limit your risk of foodborne illness by keeping packages of raw poultry in a large bowl or food storage container or setting it on a rimmed baking sheet to catch any potential drips. I recommend storing raw meat and seafood this way as well. And, of course, it’s crucial to follow other food safety practices: Keep a fridge thermometer to ensure the appliance is adequately cold (at or below 40°F/4.4°C), wash your hands with soap and water after handling raw meat and poultry, and cook meat, seafood, and poultry to safe temperatures.
Rearranging your fridge or grabbing a container to catch drips is a small change, but one that can spare you from the gut-wrenching experience of food poisoning. So the next time you put away your chicken, place it at the bottom of your fridge—or keep it contained.
