The prerequisite link: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mfilmchill.html
I work in the Tennessee State dept. of Transportation’s Aerial Photo lab.
We use many specialized forms of photographic film, which are all stored “cold” in our freezer.
It is worth noting that photographic paper is also stored cold.
Film gets 1)put into the camera. After developing, the film, it 2)becomes a negative.
The negative is 3)placed between a unactivated light source & a type of photographic paper. Then 4) the paper is then exposed to light passing through the negative.
5)The paper is then developed. This changes it into a 6)picture. WOW!!
Perhaps it is the photographic paper that is being stored in the OP’s fridge. The confusion between photo film & photo paper is quite common
that photographic paper’s shelf life is greatly increased by refridgeration. By at least 5 years, based on my experience.
Kodak may disagree on this, but at the lab, we have had great success in storing materials for long-term use by refridgeration.
Different film is balanced for different temperature light. For example Kodachrome is balanced for 3400C(if memory serves). In other words this film will display true colors when shot in light whose source glows at 3400C (daylight). If you have ever shot daylight film under incandesent lighting you will notice a golden shift to all the colors. This is because the film was not balanced for incandesent bulb temperatures. As film ages its color balance shifts away from the original balance. This is not noticable to most people in that the filter pack used by the developer to print the negatives has far more effect on the color of the final print than the film color balance. To those of us who shoot slides and to pros who need a precise balance due to very precisely controled lighting conditions, this shift over time is unacceptable. Refrigeration stops the color shift. So we purchase "professional film’ that has been constantly refrigerated since manufacture and has a guarenteed color balance.
If you roommate is keeping regular off-the-shelf film in the fridge then he is maintaining its ‘current’ color balance. But, if it sat on a warm shelf for some unknown period of time then he has no clue what the ‘current’ color balance is’.
Infra red film is also stored in a fridge. But the stuff you (or your roomate) buys in a sale at Walmart is just fine anywhere (except possibly the microwave).
this comment:
and that as the film continues to decay, it leaves less than desirable chemicals on my food.
I’m not sure the decaying film is going to poison someone via airborne deposits of chemicals. Especially new sealed film.
Or should I just go back to lurking? 
Well, Icefalcon, maybe it was paper, not film, and not so tightly sealed. Or maybe this guy is storing already used film–out of the canisters. Or maybe the fellow who wrote in is paranoid.