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There is an ongoing debate at my house about refrigerating ketchup. My family never ever did (my dad managed restaurants and said it wasn't necessary, so we didn't at home) but my husband seems to think I'm trying to kill him by leaving it in the cupboard. For a while we had two bottles, one in the fridge, one out, because I can't stand cold ketchup.

I was shocked at the room temp eggs in the UK, but I guess it hasn't killed the Brits yet... I still put mine in the fridge.

I'm always torn about other condiments-soy sauce, chili sauce, fish sauce etc. Anyone have opinions on safety/taste in vs out of the fridge?

i refrigerate just about anything already opened to, living in the south it just makes sense, we have roaches the size of buicks. Also the high humidity in the summer kinda kill crackers faster then you can eat them, so i keep my addictive substance, saltines, in the fridge as well. I think the weirdest thing i put in there is my salt. I dont use a shaker thingy, I have a medium sized snap top bowl, and i keep it in the fridge most of the time, so the salt doesnt clump, also any and all oil except olive. they tend to linger a while since i rarely use them, and this way they dont go rancid.

I refrigerate eggs, butter, milk, jam, maple syrup (because Trader Joe's says to on the bottle). I do not refrigerate mustard, ketchup, peanut butter.
I do however keep them on my lazy suzan out of direct sunlight along with my cooking oils.

@HeartOfGlass - The reason they don't refrigerate eggs in the UK is because in Europe, eggs are not washed to remove the natural protective coating that keeps them hermetically sealed. They can be stable at room temperature for that reason. Eggs sold in the USA are washed, removing the coating and making them slightly porous, which necessitates refrigeration.

My family didn't refrigerate butter - there was always a stick out in the butter dish for spreading - but since I buy mine in a big 1-lb. tub I leave it in the fridge. Room-temp butter is fine for a few days though, since it's almost all fat.

I am pretty grossed out by the idea of not refrigerating ketchup. I mean, it's full of sugar! What about that doesn't sound like a perfect breeding-ground for bacteria? Sure, it's acidic, but you're also supposed to refrigerate pickles after you open them, and they're more acidic.

Unstable oils like toasted sesame oil or flaxseed oils can get rancid just from light exposure (same with ground flax meal). Even whole wheat flour, cornmeal, etc. can easily go rancid when unrefrigerated, but I take my chances with those since I use them so often and I don't have the fridge space!

your refrigeration habits should reflect the climate of your kitchen. When I lived in an un-air conditioned house in the tropics, I refrigerated the bread so it wouldn't go moldy in two days, but in an un-air conditioned house in Austria I didn't need to. I've noticed Northern Europeans seem to have more salmonella problems with eggs, possibly because they are never refrigerated. On the other hand, I never refrigerated my butter in those countries because room temperature was usually kind of cool! I couldn't do that in the tropics. So I think some people refrigerate to prevent spoilage, and other people do so to keep insects away, and it's all right, depending on where you live.

Indeed, I never refrigerated eggs back in London. I never refrigerated soy sauce or mustard either. Here in the States, I do refrigerate all these things and most other condiments (but never honey, peanut butter or maple syrup), mostly because it makes my Other Half happy:-). We buy soy sauce in large jugs from the Asian supermarket, and he always insists that we store it in the fridge (sigh). However, all our oils and vinegars live in the dark cupboard (other than walnut or hazelnut oil), and so does homemade salad dressing as I usually make enough for 2-3 days.

Weird things? I store my sesame seeds in the fridge.

@embolini - refrigerating tomatoes is one of my biggest pet peeves as well. My father-in-law has a habit of buying 6-7 pound of tomatoes at a time and sticking them all in the fridge. Somehow the idea of buying less, keeping them outside and enjoying the actual tomato taste seems incomprehensible to him.

The usual items stay refrigerated but not honey or syrup. I like my condiments cold. I'm with ya on the flour...stays in the freezer. An unusual but non-edible item I keep in the fridge are my vials for my allergy shots.

On another note, how does everybody organize the fridge?
My biggest beef is when the hubby puts the meat on the top shelf, and I keep telling myself I'll use the grease pencil to date stuff, but never do, and then it's a guessing game when it come to spoilage.

Tomatoes: absolutely never refrigerate. I'm always surprised when I see how many people think they have to put tomatoes in the fridge which ruins their taste. As for bread, I like to eat if while fresh, and store the rest well-wrapped in the freezer. I also keep my ketchup and mustard and jams in the refrigerator, although my mother never did. And I also store coffee in the fridge. And, oh yes, vanilla.

We never refrigerated ketchup in the restaurants in which I worked (or any condiment, actually, except for the hyper-creamy salad dressings). But the turnover for a bottle of ketchup in a restaurant is much faster than at home. (Unless you have kids, maybe.) Also? It does go bad in restaurants, too. As a restaurant manager, I apologized and paid the cleaning bills for more than one ketchup-gone-bad victim. (Usually it was that bottle that didn't get rotated out often or fast enough.)

Refrigerate ketchup!

The peanut butter, I think, should be refrigerated if you are a double-dipper kind of PB eater. (Yes, I eat PB by the spoonful.) Refrigeration will slow the bacterial growth. I hope.

Every everything gets refrigerated in my house with the exception of olive oil and salt.

About the catsup in restaurants- the issue was how pretty the bottle looked. At the end of the night the front of the house would top off the old bottles with new catsup. It became a rather rancid disagreement between my kitchen and him.

I never use the catsup in a restaurant if it is already on the table!

Reading the comments about refrigerating tomatoes (with which I strongly agree), I laughed remembering a friend who stayed one summer with a doctor in Paris. His host returned home in the evening to find that the American guest had helpfully wrapped and refrigerated the cheese left from the last course of the midday meal. "You've murdered the cheese!" the doctor exclaimed in horror. Our friend was still shaken by the accusation when he told us the story.