Tag: Refrigerator
How Long Will The Food In Your Refrigerator Last?
Go ahead, open your fridge. How long have most of the items been in there? You’re probably thinking to yourself, when should they be tossed? Since the sniff test or a quick eyeball over isn’t the best way to make that determination, take a look at the guidelines and then get ready to keep or toss ‘em.
The Guidelines
Your refrigerator and freezer are temporary storage facilities that can extend the shelf life of food. However, the food stored in your fridge and freezer can definitely spoil within a specific time frame. Here are guidelines for common foods but if you’re ever in doubt, toss the food out.Baby Food
Leftover baby food (jarred or canned): 2 to 3 days (refrigerator)
Beverages
Opened canned juices: 5 to 7 days (refrigerator)
Fresh orange juice: 6 days (refrigerator) or 6 months (freezer)
Opened sodas or carbonated beverages: 2 to 3 days (refrigerator)
Soy or rice milk: 7 to 10 days (refrigerator); don’t freezeBreads and Grains
Store-bought bagels: 1 to 2 weeks (refrigerator) or 2 months (freezer)
Commercial breads: 1 to 2 weeks (refrigerator) or 3 months (freezer)
Unopened flavored rice: 6 months (pantry)
Unopened white flour: 6 to 12 months (pantry)
Muffins: 1 week (refrigerator) or 2 months (freezer)
Uncooked brown or white rice: 6 months (refrigerator) or 2 years (pantry)
Leftover pasta dishes: 1 to 2 days (refrigerator) or 2 months (freezer)
Homemade cake: 3 months (freezer)
Frozen waffles or pancakes: 3 to 4 days (refrigerator) or 2 months (freezer)Condiments
Opened barbecue sauce: 4 months (refrigerator)
Opened canned tomato sauce: 5 days (refrigerator)
Opened jar of commercial mayonnaise: 2 months (refrigerator); don’t freeze
Opened bottle of ketchup or chili sauce: 6 months (refrigerator)
Opened jar of mustard: 1 year (refrigerator)
Opened bottle of olive or vegetable oil: 4 months
Shredded Parmesan cheese: 1 month (refrigerator) or 3-4 months (freezer)
Opened jar of natural peanut butter: 4 to 6 months (refrigerator) or 2-3 months (freezer)
Opened jar of pasta sauce: 4 days (refrigerator)
Unopened coffee jar: 2 years (pantry)
Olives: 2 weeks (refrigerator); don’t freezeMeats and Poultry
Raw sausage (pork, beef, or turkey): 1 to 2 days (refrigerator) or 1 to 2 months (freezer)
Cooked chicken or turkey dishes: 3 to 4 days (refrigerator) or 4 to 6 months (freezer)
Fried chicken: 3 to 4 days (refrigerator) or 4 months (freezer)
Cooked ground chicken or turkey: 3 to 4 days (refrigerator) or 2 to 3 months (freezer)
Cooked chicken nuggets: 1 to 2 days (refrigerator) or 1 to 2 months (freezer)
Meats with gravy or sauces: 1 to 2 days refrigerator or 6 months (freezer)
Rotisserie chicken: 3 to 4 days (refrigerator) or 2 to 3 months (freezer)
Opened package of hot dogs: 1 week (refrigerator) or 1 to 2 months (freezer)
Opened package of deli meat: 3 to 4 days (refrigerator) or 1 to 2 months (freezer)
Cooked meat dishes: 3 to 4 days (refrigerator) or 2 to 6 months (freezer)Dairy Foods
Ice cream: 2 to 4 months (freezer)
Butter: 1 to 3 months (refrigerator) or 6-9 months (freezer)
Margarine: 4 to 5 months (refrigerator) or 1 year (freezer)
Milk: 1 week (refrigerator) or 3 months (freezer)
Sour cream: 1 to 3 weeks (refrigerator); don’t freeze
Yogurt: 1 to 2 week (refrigerator) or 1 to 2 months (freezer)Prepared Foods
Cut-up fruit: 4 days after cut; don’t freeze
Tuna or egg salad: 3 days (refrigerator); don’t freeze
Hard cooked eggs: 1 week (refrigerator); don’t freezeFreezer-Aisle Items
Frozen fruit: 1 year (freezer)
Frozen shrimp: 1 year (freezer)
Frozen veggies: 8 months (freezer)Other Common Leftovers
Pizza: 3 to 4 days (refrigerator) or 1 month (freezer)
Takeout: 3 to 5 days (refrigerator); don’t freeze
Invention Of The Day: Pizza-Ordering Refrigerator Magnet
Every home delivery pizza joint in the world should give this gadget away: a fridge magnet button that will automatically place an order for your favorite pizza. One button pizza delivery, folks. After this amazing feat, the only human achievement left is world peace.
The button uses Bluetooth to connect to your phone and send a message to the pizza place. Indeed, my fellow pizza fanboys, this doesn’t only make this device the best invention ever but the best application of Bluetooth in the history of Bluetooth.
Food
Whether you are a mum who cooks for many, a bachelor who cooks on rare occasions for himself, or a new college student who for the first time has his or her own refrigerator — you will eventually all open the fridge one day and say to yourself, “Can I eat this or will it kill me?”
Well here are some guidelines to help you get through the crisis, so you will know what to eat and what to toss.
THE GAG TEST
Anything that makes you gag is spoiled (except for leftovers from what you cooked for yourself last night).
EGGS
When something starts pecking its way out of the shell, the egg is probably past its prime.
DAIRY PRODUCTS
Milk is spoiled when it starts to look like yogurt. Yogurt is spoiled when it starts to look like cottage cheese. Cottage cheese is spoiled when it starts to look like regular cheese. Regular cheese is nothing but spoiled milk anyway and can’t get any more spoiled than it is already. Cheddar cheese is spoiled when you think it is blue cheese but you realize you’ve never purchased that kind.
MAYONNAISE
If it makes you violently ill after you eat it, the mayonnaise is spoiled.
FROZEN FOODS
Frozen foods that have become an integral part of the defrosting problem in your freezer compartment will probably be spoiled (or wrecked anyway) by the time you pry them out with a kitchen knife.
EXPIRATION DATES
This is NOT a marketing ploy to encourage you to throw away perfectly good food so that you’ll spend more on groceries. Perhaps you’d benefit by having a calendar in your kitchen.
MEAT
If opening the refrigerator door causes stray animals from a three-block radius to congregate outside your house, the meat is spoiled.
BREAD
Sesame seeds and Poppy seeds are the only officially acceptable “spots” that should be seen on the surface of any loaf of bread. Fuzzy and hairy looking white or green growth areas are a good indication that your bread has turned into a pharmaceutical laboratory experiment.
FLOUR
Flour is spoiled when it wiggles.
LETTUCE
Bibb lettuce is spoiled when you can’t get it off the bottom of the vegetable crisper without Comet. Romaine lettuce is spoiled when it turns liquid.
(We didn’t think you needed guidance with this one)
CANNED GOODS
Any canned goods that have become the size or shape of a softball should be disposed of.
Carefully.
CARROTS
A carrot that you can tie a clove hitch in is not fresh.
RAISINS
Raisins should not be harder than your teeth.
POTATOES
If it looks like it is ready for planting, toss it.
CHIP DIP
If you can take it out of its container and bounce it on the floor, it has gone bad.
EMPTY CONTAINERS
Putting empty containers back into the refrigerator is an old trick, but it only works if you live with someone or have a maid.
UNMARKED ITEMS
You know it is well beyond prime when you’re tempted to discard the Tupperware along with the food. Generally speaking, Tupperware containers should not burp when you open them.
GENERAL RULE OF THUMB
Most food cannot be kept longer than the average life span of a hamster. Keep a hamster in or nearby your refrigerator to gauge this.
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