[MarianaM (OP)]

This question comes from Julie:

I have received such conflicting advice from TV food cooks.  Some say that cooked chicken should be allowed to cool down to room temperature before refrigeration whilst others say to put the hot cooked chicken into the refrigerator immediately.  Which is right?  I would very much appreciate a scientist explaining to me the least food-poisoning method.

Can you help?

[Hayseed]

The only disadvantage of putting the hot chicken in the frig is the power the frig will use to cool it.
The danger is exposure to contamination while cooling outside the frig.  In our kitchen, that would be minimal.
Cooked chicken(or cooked anything) would not have a microbe population, like raw chicken has.

I'm cheap, and I would not put anything hot in my frig. 

[Storm Steve]

Is it possible that putting hot food into a refrigerator could raise the temperature of other, nearby, food and cause it to spoil more quickly?

For example, I would never put a pot of hot soup next to a carton of milk in the refrigerator, for fear of spoiling the milk.

[nudephil]

Storm Steve and Hayseed - good advice! We put together the full answer for our Gene Therapy show. If you're interested you can listen there or on the Question of the Week podcast feed. (Apologies, the forum won't let me post links.)