@Judy Eddington, You are quite right about the level of preservative in sauce but I can assure you, it can still go off as I found only a few weeks ago. I kind of compare opened food products a bit like cooked or uncooked food, the facts now are that you should put hot product straight into the fridge to avoid bacteria building up and yet in the past we all waited till the food was cool before we refrigerated. So with condiments, I like to refrigerate for the same reason.

I store them in a dark cool cupboard with the potatoes, or i try and chop them all up as soon as I get them in the food processor and put in zip lock bags in the freezer, that way they won't go off and so easy to just grab out a handful when cooking. If they do shoot i bury them in the garden to grow more. same with garlic, i chop it all up in the food processor then place in ice cube trays in freezer, once frozen i place in zip lock bag, then it's just a matter of having a block or 2 out when cooking.

What ever you feel comfortable with. For years people have been storing eggs in a larder/pantry and providing you choose good quality eggs from reputable sources it should be perfectly ok to store eggs at room temperature. In fact many chefs support this as the eggs perform better in cooking when kept out of the fridge. A few years ago test was done on Lion-branded eggs. Two batches of eggs were kept for a fortnight, one at room temperature, the other at typical fridge temperature. Samples from both batches were regularly tested for a wide range of bacteria including E.coli, salmonella and listeria and there was no difference between the two batches. Both remained bacteria-free.

Tim Tams are very nice, of course, but it's Mint Slices that really get me drooling! Both always in the fridge (essential in summer, nice even in a cold winter).