A kitchen conversation had a few days ago. Who is right? Who is wrong? You decide…
Roommate: Heh. I just bought some peanut butter and it seems to be gone.
Me: Really? I just made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich a few days ago. It should be around…
RM:The ketchup seems to be missing too…
Me:What do you want to do with peanut butter AND ketchup? Will I be forced to eat it?
RM:(opening refrigerator) A ha. As I expected. Both are in the refrigerator!
Me:What’s your point? They belong in the refrigerator. Do you you want them to go bad?
RM:Look at the labels, it says ‘no refrigeration required.’
Me:I still think it’s safer to put in the refrigerator to avoid spoilage. How come we put flour, rice, cornstarch and film in the refrigerator? To avoid spoilage.
My Burning Kitchen 
I'll bite (har!). I'll side with your roommate for energy consumption reasonsItems that don't need refrigeration not only waste energy being cooled, they waste energy letting cold air out every time you open the fridge to retrieve them.Check out this Salon article on the subject:http://www.salon.com/mwt/food/eat_drink/2007/03/20/refrigerator/
What are you doing eating your roommate's peanut butter?!?!
i agree with your roommate too. People at work put the tomato sauce in the fridge too, but i can't stand having cold tomato sauce. It should be at room temperature! sorry…
Both of my peanut butter and ketchup bottles say Refrigerate after opening… And our family always has regardless if it said so or not especially during the summer months when the temperature in the kitchen cabinets varies so drastically. Ditto mustard, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, salad dressings, fragile oils that break down fast like seasame and peanut…Letting items then come to room temp is best for flavor enhancement.And as for energy consumption, a full refrigerator uses less energy than a nearly empty one. (Read that one in Real Simple recently and thought, a-ha! I was right! Of course, the argument I had with an old roommate as to full fridge vs. half empty fridge took place years ago! LOL).
I'm split…I keep ketchup in the fridge, but the peanut butter on the counter — I guess I don't like cold pb and am impatient for it to get to room temp. We also keep honey on the counter along with flour, sugar, cornstarch, but the maple syrup goes in the fridge.I'm sorry, I don't think I'm helping…
Oh my god, disgusting. I have a fear of foodborne illness and I say ketchup should be refrigerated. Plus I like it cold, I am weird. Peanut butter should definitely be refrigerated have you seen the amount of oil in that sh*t?That is b.s. about opening the fridge and letting the air out, what are you standing there for hours?Meanwhile I do not believe that flour or soy sauce should be refrigerated. So there. My two cents, plus.
Of course, Mrs. Wong is right. The ketchup goes in the fridge and the peanut butter stays out. Unless, you are one of those mental defectives who buys peanut butter with jelly in the peanut butter. What was that crap called? SA
SA (anonymous), it's Goober by Smucker's… and i love it..
Kleopatra, Well, you should not like it. My cousin liked it, too. He died at 25. They did an autopsy and found lines of grape jelly running down his heart.