# Does soda *need* to be refrigerated?



## BabyG (Oct 7, 2006)

Hello there,

As a student living in a small apartment the fridge real estate is very limited and valuable.
I was just wondering if i truly do need to "refrigerate after opening" a bottle of soda as the label instruts me to, or is it more of a serving suggestion type thing because cold drink is much more preferable than room temperature.

Another reason im wondering if i can just keep my sodas in the upboard after opening is that they are usually sugar free diet varieties so there's not really any sugar for bacteria/fungi to feed from

Does anyone have any insight please?


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## auntdot (Oct 7, 2006)

All I can tell you is that we usually drink our soda pop warm and from 2 liter bottles. And keep the stuff at room temperature.

Just looked at a diet Coke bottle and saw no refrigeration dictum.

Without sugar, and with the acidity added by the carbonation, would think storage at room temperature for a reasonable amount of time would be OK as far as bacterial growth goes.

Heat is the enemy of carbonation, it drives off the carbon dioxide, so perhaps the reason they state that is to maintain the carbonation (the screw caps are not always perfect at keeping in the gas).

However, don't know what sodas you are referring to. 

Am just speculating here, but we have never had any problems keeping ours at room temp.


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## BabyG (Oct 7, 2006)

Ahh i had a sneaky suspiscion it might have somehting to do with the carbonation.

Thank you for the reply 

I know some people that leave eggs in there cupboards not in the fridge either.  They swear that it lasts longer, but i've never been game enough to pick up on that.
I must say tho, breakfast at there places never resulted in an illness..


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