How old is too old for the food in your fridge?

Age is not just a number when it comes to safe food handling.Many factors can affect how long food can be safely stored in your fridge. While a very general rule of thumb says that leftovers can be stored safely for about 3 days, all these factors will affect a food’s longevity in your fridge:

• What type of food is it? Foods with high amounts of natural preservatives – salt, acid (e.g. vinegar or lemon juice) or sugar content will have a longer fridge life.
• What temperature is your fridge? Is it at 4^oC (40^oF) or colder? 
• How often is your fridge opened in a day and for how long? A large family will open the fridge door more often than a single person, for example. Every time the fridge door is opened, the fridge and its contents’ temperature increases and that’s a green light for bacterial growth.
• How fresh is the food when you get it? Has it travelled for thousands of miles over the course of days or weeks?
• When you purchased the food, did it go right into the fridge, or did you spend a couple hours getting groceries and doing other errands before refrigerating the food?
• Foods with a lower moisture content will generally last longer. 

“Best by” dates let you skip the guessing about whether something in your fridge is still safe to eat. 

Perishable, packaged foods come with either a “best before” date in Canada or a “use by” date in the U.S. These dates are determined based on the type of food and its ideal storage and food-handling situations.  

Best before / use by dates are not negotiable. They are not suggestions of when to use the food by. You might get away with eating something past its best before / use by date, but I do not recommend it. Sometimes foods are obviously spoiled. But more often, you can’t tell by sniffing or looking at a food if it’s still safe to eat. If in doubt, throw it out. Food poisoning can be extremely damaging and even fatal.  

The best way to manage safe food storage is to buy only what you know you can eat before the best before / use by date. Buy your groceries and get them into your fridge without delay. Store the food properly and maintain a cold, constant temperature in your fridge.