Here's Why You Should Never Store Chocolate In The Fridge

Keeping food fresh and tasty to eat can be difficult at times. Milk enjoys turning lumpy if kept too long, bread transforms into a green brick if exposed to the air for many days, and lettuce has an uncanny ability to shrivel up into massive balls of brown sludge after a while. And, when these and other foods are taken into warm areas or hot weather, things only get worse.

Naturally, chocolate is particularly susceptible to the adverse effects of persistent heat and other testy conditions. Turning into runny, sloppy mush at the earliest sign of a waft of warm air, chocolate is as useful in the heat as a building made out of marshmallows. The immediate reaction is to store chocolate safely within the chilled sanctuary of the refrigerator, but some experts have suggested that such a move can actually do more harm than good when it comes to the health of your cocoa.

The Sun reports that storing chocolate in the fridge, even during the sweltering depths of a scorching heat wave, isn't necessarily the best thing for it. Luke Owen Smith (who surely has everyone's dream job as a "chocolate expert") says that the cold can alter the taste of chocolate, giving it a dull flavor. The fridge should be used only when temperatures reach roughly 82 degrees Fahrenheit. In the meantime, Smith recommends keeping chocolate in a dark, cool place.

This is supported by Serious Eats, which recommends avoiding moisture and sunlight when choosing a location to keep chocolate. If chocolate has to be kept in a fridge, make sure it is put in a sealed container to stop moisture from entering. Give chocolate time to come to room temperature before eating it to prevent damage to its flavor.

Hotel Chocolat explains that the cocoa butter in chocolate can absorb flavors and smells from other foods, meaning that keeping chocolate in the fridge could result in it picking up a whole host of unexpected tastes. It also notes that the texture of chocolate can be affected by refrigeration, resulting in alterations to the sugar within that cause a gritty feel.