Refrigerator Often Above 40 degrees, Maintenance says it's fine appliancerepair

I live in a large apartment complex with its own maintenance staff (probably shared among other complexes but still). Recently I got a fridge/freezer thermometer. And I realized that my fridge is having trouble getting below 40 degrees. I've seen it as high as 46 or so (might have recently been opened) and sometimes it gets down to 39ish but never lower. I also put in a meat thermometer to check it against something as well as an infrared thermometer. The meat thermometer usually shows similar results (though it's harder to tell as the dial is small) and the infrared usually shows meat and drinks are a few degrees warmer than the other thermometer.

I set up an appointment with maintenance. The maintenance person came today. He used his own stick thermometer which showed it a few degrees colder, but it still showed 42. He told me 42 was fine and it was working to him. I told him the FDA recommends no higher than 40 or else bacteria grows faster. To which he replied: "the bacteria is if you don't clean your refrigerator."

Putting aside the ridiculousness of that last thing, his argument seems to be that 2 degrees isn't a big deal and that like an AC unit the temps will range from moment to moment. My argument is that might be true but it should never be HIGHER than 40.

Is he right? I want to make sure I'm clearly in the right before getting up in arms over it. I don't know much about Refrigerators, so all I have to go on is what I can find on the internet about food safety.

Submitted April 25, 2017 at 06:34AM by zorastersab http://ift.tt/2opG3rH appliancerepair