AITJ for throwing away food that was left in the office fridge too long?

So at work we have a shared fridge and it gets pretty messy if no one keeps an eye on it.

A few weeks ago it got really bad, like old stuff, things leaking, weird smell every time you open it. No one was really doing anything about it.

Our manager mentioned we should clean it out more often, so last Friday before leaving I decided to just clear out the obviously old stuff.

There were a few food boxes that had been sitting ther all week (like 4–5 days), no names on them or anything. Some of it honestly didn’t look great at all, like it wasn't only the smell anymore, it was really visible, you could tell they were nasty.

So I threw them out and I didn’t think much of it, I just thought that somebody will eventually do it in the next few days, so I might as well do it now.

Then Monday comes and my coworker came in asking where her food was. Turns out one of the boxes I threw away was her. She turned red in the office and said she was planning to eat it.

I told her it had been there for days with no name and it looked really bad anyway. Apparently, I have no right to touch other people’s food and that I should’ve asked first.

Now she’s really ice cold with me and the other colleagues said I should’ve just left it.

I get that it wasnt mine, but at the same time the fridge was getting worse everyday.

TL;DR: Office fridge was full of old unlabeled food so I threw out stuff that had been there for days. One coworker got mad because I threw away hers. Am I the jerk?

Posted Apr 6, 2026, 12:55 AM UTC

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