If you manually defrost your refrigerator, removing all the food and storing it in a cooler or insulated bag with ice packs is recommended. This is because the defrosting process can cause the temperature inside the refrigerator to rise, leading to food spoilage. However, suppose your refrigerator has an automatic defrosting feature. In that case, you can leave the food in the appliance as the temperature fluctuations during the defrosting cycle are minimal and usually do not affect the food’s quality.