A happy mum has shared an innocent picture online of her pantry, only to unwittingly ignite a heated debate among social media users, who were quick to spot an ‘issue’. The woman took to the Aldi Mums Facebook group to share a photo of her new Aldi pantry lights, which she proudly stated “have a remote, can be used manually and change colour”. Yet, it wasn’t the lights that had people talking, with eagle-eyed users instead finding a “disgusting” issue with certain pantry items.
The post was flooded with outraged comments, focusing not on the lights but instead on the bottle of tomato sauce sitting on the bottom shelf. It reignited an age-old debate: does tomato sauce belong in the fridge or in the pantry?
While for many it may seem like a non-issue, the divisive topic was enough to spark a debate among the Facebook group’s members. Many insisted the room-temperature pantry was the correct storage place, but others highlighted that the sauce states ‘refrigerate after opening’.
Some pointed out that the poor woman was only trying to share her lights – not spark a tomato sauce war! “Geez, it’s about the lights and people going on about sauce! Who cares whether it’s in the pantry or fridge! That’s up to the individual how you want to store,” one person wrote.
“Who keeps tomato sauce in the pantry?” another wrote. While one added, “Not me, not since I saw a post about someone finding maggots in their sauce. Ever since then it’s fridge for me.”
“All of you who keep it in the pantry are disgusting. It literally says ‘refrigerate after opening’. Plus, nothing better than cold sauce and hot chips,” another said.
One woman pointed out that many of us had grown up putting sauces in the pantry and had “survived”. “Oh the people who have become paranoid about tomato sauce in the pantry, think about where it was kept when you were growing up. Are you dead from that… No, we survived. I don’t know how we did lol (laugh out loud),” she said.
Hilariously, it wasn’t only the tomato sauce that caused offence, with others jumping in to point fingers at the soy sauce, claiming it should also be refrigerated.
“This is awesome, but we need to talk! Is the sauce open? If it is, fridge! And is that soy sauce? Fridge! But everything else is awesome,” one woman wrote.
While another replied, “Soy sauce doesn’t need to be refrigerated. Check the bottle. Everything always has storage instructions.” And one added, “I’ve had soy sauce in my cupboard for years.”