Came home this evening, wanted a refreshing glass of orange juice, to find it had frozen lumps in it. It was definitely ok this morning, when I poured a drink from the same bottle.
Went out for a quick bike ride. Came back and found the alcohol free beer had frozen and burst, and then what had spilled out of the bottle as a liquid had subsequently refrozen. This had definitely not happened when I had the orange juice, so it had done two freezes and a thaw in 1.5 to 2 hours.

There are other bottles of juice, beer and coke in there so far unscathed, along with cheese, meat, tofu, fresh veg. None of which I think will appreciate being frozen.
What’s wrong and how (if anything) do I stop my food being ruined?

Turn the temperature up? Did someone knock the dial?

Were the bottles next to an icebox that needs defrosting?

As Cougar suggests, if it is a fridge/freezer then maybe the freezer part needs defrosting.  We had one where although the freezer looked ok it had a sort of flap valve between the two sections that had frozen open.  A defrost fixed it

…bottles of juice, beer and coke in there so far unscathed, along with cheese, meat, tofu, ….how (if anything) do I stop my food being ruined?

time for a party 🙂

Fridge freezer – freezer bit could be due a defrost, bit of ice on the back wall.
The two casualties so far haven’t been near the freezer bit though. Both on a middle shelf.

I’ve twiddled the dial from max to med, was quite a turn so can’t see that taking an accidental knock. And that’s assuming max means maximum chill, not maximum temperature. There’s no numbers or other markings on it anywhere.

I’ve twiddled the dial from max to med

there is your problem set too cold

Came back and found the alcohol free beer had frozen and burst, and then what had spilled out of the bottle as a liquid had subsequently refrozen. This had definitely not happened when I had the orange juice, so it had done two freezes and a thaw in 1.5 to 2 hours.

I’m not seeing ‘refrozen’ or ‘thaw’ in those symptoms. Half the beer froze, the bottle burst, the other still liquid half spilled into the fridge then that too froze.

So your fridge is too cold.

Turning the temperature knob as you’ve done is a good first step to resolve.

I’ve twiddled the dial from max to med, was quite a turn

That’d do it.

On a fridge with a manual control I found I had to adjust it according to ambient temperature – ie, have it colder in summer and back it off in winter. And, well, it’s not warm at the moment.

that’s assuming max means maximum chill, not maximum temperature.

I always struggle with this; but I think it does, yes.

Make sure that it’s sited according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Some only have one thermostat for both fridge and freezer. Otherwise as suggested above, you can get cheap thermometers to set the ‘stat

Is the door sealing properly?

My wife has a habit of stuffing things into the fridge, to the point where it won’t close properly. The fridge then warms up, and at the same time, the cooling thing* goes into overdrive to try and maintain the cooler temperature. Resulting in the back of the fridge getting all iced over, anything near the back ends up partially frozen

*Industry technical term

Turn the temperature up?

Trouble is, literally nobody knows whether a higher number equates to a higher or lower temp.
Nobody.

I genuinely thought that was just me.