How Long Food Keeps in the Fridge and Freezer

This is the note for standing in front of the fridge holding a package of chicken and trying to remember when you bought it. The numbers are conservative ranges, not guarantees. How cold your fridge runs, how the food was packed and how long it sat in the car all move them, so treat the low end as the plan and the high end as the limit.

Meat and seafood

Raw meat has the shortest fridge life of anything here. Anything ground goes fastest, because grinding spreads whatever was on the surface all the way through.

Food	Fridge (raw)	Freezer
Whole chicken	1-2 days	1 year
Chicken parts	1-2 days	9 months
Ground chicken	1-2 days	3 months
Beef steaks	3-5 days	9 months
Ground beef	1-2 days	3 months
Pork chops	3-5 days	6 months
Ground pork	1-2 days	3 months
Whole fish	1-2 days	6 months
Fish fillets	1-2 days	3 months
Shrimp, peeled and deveined	1-2 days	6 months
Crab legs	1-2 days	6 months

Heads up

Freezer times are about quality, not safety. Frozen solid, food stays safe much longer, but past these dates it picks up freezer burn and dries out. If it's going to be a while, wrap it tight and press the air out.

Leftovers and cooked food

Once it's cooked, the clock mostly resets to three or four days.

Food	Fridge	Freezer
Cooked chicken	3-4 days	—
Cooked ground beef	3-4 days	—
Cooked rice	—	3-4 months

Cooked rice is worth a special mention because day-old rice is exactly what Shrimp Fried Rice wants. Fresh rice steams and clumps in the pan; rice that's spent a night in the fridge fries up in separate grains. Freeze extra in flat bags and it's there when you need it. Cooked chicken is the same kind of head start: a rotisserie bird on day one is chicken noodle soup on day two or three.

Produce and dairy

Food	Fridge	Freezer
Fresh vegetables	3 days to 2 weeks	8-12 months
Leafy greens	5-7 days	—
Berries	3-7 days	6-12 months
Apples	1-2 months	—
Milk	5-7 days once opened	—
Eggs	3-4 weeks in the carton	—
Block cheese	2-4 weeks	6 months
Yogurt	1-2 weeks	—

The vegetable range is wide because "vegetables" covers everything from mushrooms to carrots. Soft, wet ones sit at the short end; sturdy root vegetables at the long end. Berries freeze beautifully, which is handy: frozen berries are what make the berry cheesecake shakes cold and thick without ice.

Tip

Keep eggs in their carton on a shelf, not in the door. The carton protects them and the door is the warmest spot in the fridge.

The pantry

Dry goods are the forgiving part of the kitchen.

Food	Shelf life
White rice	4-5 years
Oats	2 years
Canned goods	1-2 years
Flour	6-8 months

Flour is the one that surprises people. It goes stale and a little sour well before the rice does, so if you only bake now and then, buy the small bag.