An airline worker called the Hilton for offering mini fridges that cannot actually keep food cold.
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In a viral TikTok video with 345,600 views as of Friday morning, user Ava (@avaonthego) called out her hotel because its mini fridge wasn’t cool enough to store food.
“POV: Your flight attendant just trying to meal prep but your food keeps going bad in the hotels with the ‘cute fridges,’” text overlaid on the clip read.
In the clip, the woman has a conversation with the hotel’s front desk.
“I’m calling with kind of a weird question,” she said. “Are these refrigerators, do you know like how cold they get?”
The woman wanted to know if the fridge’s temperature was the reason why her food kept going bad.
The video never provided an answer to the inquiry.
Do hotel mini fridges keep food cold?
According to lifehacker.com, most hotels do not offer mini fridges that get cold enough to safely store food or medications.
To safely store food, it should be kept refrigerated at under 40 degrees. However, most hotel fridges are 40 degrees or warmer.
Those warmer temperatures are OK for chilling drinks, but cannot keep food out of the “danger zone.”
If food is left in the danger zone, it is warm enough for bacteria to grow. This can lead to the food spoiling or result in food poisoning.
Tips for handling a not-so-cool mini fridge
There are some things hotel guests can do to still make good use of mini-fridges.
If you want to bring food along on a trip, try to avoid meat, milk, or seafood. You can also bring along frozen meals and allow them to thaw in the fridge until you are ready to consume them.
The ice machine can also offer an additional way to keep food chilled. Place an item that needs to be kept cool in an ice bucket filled with ice, then place it in the fridge for extra cooling.
In the video’s comments section, many said that the mini fridges simply aren’t safe in certain circumstances.
“This is dangerous for people with insulin,” user mika said.
“As someone that needed to make sure the fridge worked for my medication, I can tell you that, NO, most are not safe,” user Nina added.
“There definitely needs to be adequate signage if the fridges aren’t food safe. This sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen,” user dixayyy sahmilf commented.
Others likened the fridges to beverage coolers.
“I think most are now just ‘beverage coolers,’” user Sarah R wrote.
“I was at the Hilton and their fridge literally made my drinks warmer. Said there was nothing they could do,” another user added.
In a follow-up video, the TikTok user addressed commenters who argued she should’ve been aware the fridges are merely beverage coolers.
“For whatever reason you may be traveling, you should be able to have access to a proper refrigerator inside a hotel that claims to have a refrigerator,” she argued.
The Daily Dot reached out to Hilton via email and Ava by TikTok comment and direct message for comment.
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