Then the Americans arrived. We had already glimpsed them in imported sitcoms: vast, cavernous hangars of fridges with wide-spaced, well-lit shelves, groaning with Budweiser, leftover Chinese food in bucket-shaped boxes and orange juice that was drunk as profligately as squash. Over-stuffed and then, all at once, over here.

Demand rose and manufacturers such as Samsung and Maytag lunged at the opportunity, introducing new "American-style" fridges. That word "style" is important.

Consumer research showed we wanted fridges that were taller than us - but our kitchens, units and even doors couldn't cope with the size of imported models so slightly smaller versions were made for the UK market.

According to market research group, Mintel, sales of "larder" fridges - tall, with no icebox - or the even more bloated "side-by-side" type with adjacent freezer wing, have entirely outstripped sales of under-the-counter models. A fact borne out by the presence of an entire section dedicated to "American-style" fridges on the John Lewis website.

Researchers attribute this trend to both fashion - fitted kitchens are no longer in vogue - and the amount of cumbersomely boxed chilled meals we consume. And now the government waste reduction body, the Waste & Resources Action Programme (Wrap), is recommending we store all fresh produce in the fridge so it keeps longer, because UK consumers throw away a staggering 4.4m apples a day, and fruit and veg accounts for 40% of all food waste.

But is the recommended fridge temperature of below 5C necessarily best for keeping all food appetisingly fresh? Do we really need to store enough perishable goods to fill an American-style fridge at such a low temperature? A domestic fridge dries food out, hermetically seals smells and flavours together and - even though today's fridge is, on average, twice as fuel efficient as one bought 10 years ago - consumes significant amounts of energy. I talked to a wide range of culinary and food hygiene experts to find out what we should and shouldn't be keeping in our fridges.

Cheese: According to conventional culinary wisdom, good cheese is a living thing that needs to breathe good air, maybe sweat a little. People have been hanged, drawn and quartered at north London dinner parties for serving cheeses that have been cruelly incarcerated in the fridge. In fact, according to cheese guru Patricia Michelson, owner of north London's La Fromagerie, although cheese should be served at room temperature, it can be refrigerated if allowed to breathe under cover of a damp cloth. But be careful: its flavour can be tainted by that of other foods and, of course, some of the stronger cheeses will return the favour - camembert trifle anyone?

Butter: The Brits favour uncultured butter, which becomes rancid very quickly if not refrigerated. Unfortunately, refrigeration also gives butter the spreading qualities of a housebrick. Domestic arguments over keeping butter either fresh or soft are certainly to blame for the popularity of "spreadable" butters - made tractable with vegetable oil or air bubbles. More civilised nations prefer cultured butters made from soured milk, which have a delicious, rich flavour, often with elements of fresh grass or caramel. They also keep well at low room temperatures. Sadly, this is impossible to get in the UK, though a good, salted, raw milk butter will last longer than most.

Eggs: One of the triumphs of supermarket logistics is that most eggs now take around two days to get from the chicken to your basket, which means that we get fresher eggs than ever before. A fresh, free-range egg should last beautifully at room temperature for at least a week but, with the ever-present risk of salmonella, all authorities now recommend keeping them refrigerated. Those racks in the fridge door are the worst place to store eggs - the constant shaking thins the whites, and the smells and flavours of other foods can penetrate the shell.

Make sure you buy fresh eggs as you need them, keep them in an airtight container on a shelf in the fridge and eat within a week. Refrigeration can make eggs last for ages without "going off" so many people buy them in bulk and end up eating perfectly safe but horribly stale eggs weeks later.

Meat: Although meat needs to be at room temperature before cooking, it should always be refrigerated if it is not going to be cooked as soon as you get it home. And store it on the bottom shelf so no juices can drip on to other food.

Fruit: Fruit from temperate climates, apples for example, can be refrigerated but fruit from warmer countries can only be stored successfully at around 10C, so a domestic fridge can wreak all sorts of havoc. Bananas go black (though they remain edible); avocados go dark but stop softening and end up being the colour and texture of a hand grenade. Melons develop black spots. Tomatoes will respond to the fridge with an exhausted sigh and almost immediately become mealy and unappetising. All fruit can be stored in a fruit bowl or basket on the counter - but be sure to store the bananas away from other produce. They release ethylene, which can cause other fruit around them to overripe.

Vegetables: Like fruit, veg from warm climates gain nothing from chilling. Marrows, courgettes, peppers, cucumbers and beans all become mushy or blackened much faster in a domestic fridge and all should be kept out in the bowl with the fruit. If, for some reason, your home lacks a root cellar (which most households relied upon for cool storage in the pre-fridge era), mushrooms and root veg - potatoes, parsnips and carrots etc - should be kept at room temperature and protected from light in a paper or cloth sack. Putting potatoes in the fridge can increase the amount of sugar they contain, which could lead to higher levels of a carcinogenic chemical called acrylamide when the potatoes are baked, fried or roasted at high temperatures.

Leftovers: Leftover tinned food can be kept in the fridge for a short while but must be transferred to a clean, airtight container. Exposure to the air means that the food can become contaminated through contact with the material in the can's lining if it is not removed. This applies just as much to the cat's lunch as to your baked beans.

Miscellaneous: Honey, cooking oils, peanut butter and tahini will congeal in the fridge. Bread, cake and other baked products will lose moisture and take on a rubbery texture rather than going hard and stale. Chocolate develops an unsightly sugar bloom - that white film is a result of condensation, which makes the sugar dissolve and recrystalise.

Ultimately, bear in mind that a fridge inhibits the action of enzymes and bacteria that make food go bad. Unfortunately, some of the most luxurious foods rely for flavour on the very enzymatic and bacterial processes that the chilling prevents. One person's "going off" is another's "ripening". The fridge enables us to keep food longer but shouldn't stop us buying fresh, rotating stock and using things while they are still at their best. One of the few advantages of supermarkets is that they can get food to us quickly - if we then stick it in a home morgue and wait days to eat it we lose even that benefit.

· Tell us how you store your perishables blogs.theguardian.com/food