How long does food last in the fridge?

Two different dates are printed on food and they mean quite different things. Use-by relates to safety and applies to things that can make you ill. Best-before relates to quality — biscuits past their best-before are stale, not dangerous.

Safety

What you'll need

• Fridge thermometer (optional)
• Airtight containers (optional)

Step by step

1. Check your fridge is actually cold enough.0-5°C. Many domestic fridges run warmer, and every degree above that shortens every keeping time on this list.
2. Cooked leftovers: two days, refrigerated within two hours of cooking.Cool quickly, cover, and refrigerate. Reheat until piping hot throughout, and only once.
3. Raw meat and poultry: one to two days.On the bottom shelf, covered, on a plate. Freeze it if you will not use it within that window.
4. Raw fish: one day, ideally the day you buy it.Fish deteriorates faster than meat. If it smells strongly of fish rather than of the sea, it is past it.
5. Milk: three to five days after opening; eggs several weeks.Milk keeps best at the back, not in the door where the temperature swings most. Eggs are fine well past their date if they sink in water.
6. Hard cheese: two to three weeks. Soft cheese: about a week.Surface mould on hard cheese can be cut away with a good margin; on soft cheese it means the whole thing goes.
7. Cooked rice: one day, cooled fast.This one is stricter than most people realise. Cool it within an hour, refrigerate, use within a day and reheat until piping hot.
8. Opened jars and sauces: check the label.Many say 'use within 3 days of opening' and mean it. Fermented and high-acid products keep much longer.

Tips

• Use your senses as a second check, never as the only one. Some dangerous bacteria produce no smell, taste or appearance change at all.
• Store food where the fridge is right for it: meat at the bottom, dairy in the body, condiments in the door. The door is the warmest part.
• Label leftovers with the date. Two days is easy to lose track of, and 'I think it was Tuesday' is not a good position.

Common mistakes

• Treating best-before as a safety date — It is about quality. A large amount of edible food is discarded because of this confusion.
• Ignoring a use-by date — That one is about safety and applies to foods that can cause illness. It should not be exceeded.
• Keeping milk in the fridge door — The door is the warmest part and swings in temperature every time it opens. Milk keeps noticeably longer at the back.

Questions people ask