What is in your fridge?

"Our fridge ranges from TV dinners (his) to various Asian sauces (hers)"

FRIDGE SECRETS Americans on a "time crunch" French watch the food miles Palestinian on a tight budget Kenya's lack of variety India's pesticide worries Your fridge confessions

As part of the BBC's season looking at sustainable food, we took a peek in the fridges of people in cities around the world and ask what motivates their food choices.

We also asked you to allow us to visit your kitchen and find out a bit more about your eating and shopping habits.

Here is a selection of your comments:

SANTOSH KUMAR, PUNE, INDIA

Cucumber, tomatoes, eggs, homemade pickles, sweet dishes, milk, carrots etc. Mostly vegetables which are home grown. Therefore we hardly ever need to keep under fridge.

We collect on a morning evening basis and cook them. It's a real pleasure to eat self grown vegetables. We grow almost 15 types of different vegetables on a single season. Sometimes we buy vegetables from local farmers.

The major concern in India is pesticides. Farmers are not well educated, hence their concern is only productivity. They use dangerous levels of pesticide to their farm product to ensure maximum yield.

JIM KAJPUST, FREELAND, UNITED STATES

My wife is Asian and I'm a white American. Our fridge contents ranges from frozen TV dinners (mine) to various sauces and stuff with completely Asian printing (hers).

At any one time about a third of the fridge is unusual to half of our household.

VIKTORIYA TOMINA, UKRAINE, LVIV

I try to buy apples and carrots from street vendors, so that I can be half sure that such food does not contain chemicals. Because as far as I know, all the fruits and vegetables in supermarkets, at least here in Ukraine, are from abroad and have all sorts of chemicals.

Just look at those supermarket apples - they are like in the picture. Can such apples be useful if it is clear that they were processed with chemicals? Even insects did not want to taste them.

All the citrus plants are gathered while they are green, and they mature when they have been plunged into some liquid with chemicals that help fruits to mature. What use can I expect from them?

And what is more worrying is the issue of mutation components in the food we eat - I firmly think we do have right to know if this or that product is a product of genetic engineering or not. Unfortunately, a consumer in our country can't know this....

SARA, AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

Last spring my fridge broke down, and instead of going through the trouble of buying a new one I decided to experiment with living without one.

So far so good, I buy my vegetables at the supermarket and try to cook them the same day. They last for about one to two days outside the fridge.

Organic veggies seem to last a little longer. Since I eat no meat, fish or dairy products I don't have to worry about them.

During the summer I had to be careful because of the heat, but now that the winter is here I can store my food outside in case I need to.

CAROLE, UK

Living in a farm I tend to buy mainly locally produced foods as far as possible. I don't do ready meals at all.

I would never buy food out of season, there is really no need to as there is so much choice.

CHRIS RUTT, TORREJON DE ARDOZ, SPAIN

Chorizo, jamon iberico, queso manchego? Perhaps not so unusual in a spanish fridge, however.

I would comment that in my experience in Spain much more food is locally, or at least nationally, produced, and many more meals are prepared at home, even when Mum works.

My partner would have a fit if I suggested buying tinned meatballs when she can make delicious "albóndigas". Baked beans - don't be silly, "pochas" in a homemade sauce are much tastier. Fish fingers ? Yes they are available, but not usually made with cod. More often hake is used, and it's tasty too.

Spain, thank whoever, still has independent stores (greengrocers, butchers, "wet" fish shops, bakers) as well as supermarkets.

And finally, despite the current food price inflation here, it is still generally cheaper than in the UK, from where I import a few trimmings that I miss, like horseradish and mint sauces.

HEIDI AANDERUD, LOS ANGELES, UNITED STATES

Unlike the persons featured in this article, I am ashamed to admit that I pay little to no attention to packaging and origin.

I live in Los Angeles, and like most Americans here, I look for the best prices on food. Therefore, I do a lot of my shopping at a warehouse/wholesale grocer, called Costco, where food is sold in large quantities.

I admit, Costco is a nightmare for organic eaters and environmentalists, but it's cheap! Who can beat 24 cans of chicken noodle soup for $9.94?

All to say, I find myself riding the same band wagon as all Americans: consuming and wasting. Unless nutrition labels highlighted origin instead of calories and carbs, and used less packaging, there's really now way around that.

So, what do you find in my refrigerator? A good dose of pre-made meals, a hearty serving of frozen foods, a large amount of boxed things, oh and peanut butter (can't forget that).

MICHAEL STRANATHAN, AKRON, USA

I take a good deal of ribbing from my girlfriend and son who complain that I have more condiments, garnishes, dressings, and sauces than anyone else.

The fact of the matter is that I find it hard to keep anything that we regularly eat stocked in the fridge without either running out or having go bad.

Anymore, the food that we (as an American society) purchase is packaged to serve multiple portions or such large portions that you either have to eat it almost as soon as you purchase it, or you end up throwing it away because it has spoiled.

I tend to purchase most food fresh and avoid convenience foods, although there are some exceptions. I love pasta, although my girlfriend is on a low carb diet, so we purchase low carb pasta (dried) and keep this in the pantry.

I do occasionally purchase fresh pasta and tend to pick foods that are whole grain, have no sugar added in the process, and are low salt. We both love meat and tend to purchase our beef fresh from the local butcher.

DOUGLAS PROUDEN, EDMONTON, CANADA

Our fridge has a lot of fruit, vegetables, frozen meat and home made sweets. Most of the meals are made from scratch - hardly any pre-packaged food is used.

In the summer we use the farmers market for fresh fruit and veggies, in the winter it is more fruit from the US which isn't that fresh or great it's picked green and forced ripened.

In Canada we have quite an abundance of everything what with different nationalities who have ethnic stores. I find that a bonus to try different type of meals.