How Long Food Lasts in the Fridge and Freezer: Chart

How to read the storage times

Every time below assumes a refrigerator at 40 °F (4 °C) or below and a freezer at 0 °F (-18 °C) or below. Those settings, the Danger Zone, the 2-hour rule for food left out, safe cooking temperatures and safe thawing are covered in the food safety temperatures guide; this guide starts once the food is cold.

The two columns mean different things:

• Refrigerator times are short limits. FoodSafety.gov says the short time limits for home-refrigerated foods help keep them from spoiling or becoming dangerous to eat. FSIS explains why: spoilage bacteria grow at low temperatures, and some harmful bacteria, such as Listeria monocytogenes, thrive in the cold and multiply in the refrigerator over time.
• Freezer times are for quality only. The same chart says frozen foods stored continuously at 0 °F or below can be kept indefinitely. The months listed are how long the food tastes its best.

The tables come from the FoodSafety.gov Cold Food Storage Chart, except dairy, which comes from the FoodKeeper, the storage database of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), Cornell University and the Food Marketing Institute. Where another federal page differs, both numbers are named. If a food is not listed, the FoodKeeper covers more than 650 foods and drinks.

Raw meat, poultry and ground meat

Anything ground and all raw poultry get 1 to 2 days, whole cuts of red meat 3 to 5. FSIS's refrigeration page adds stew meat and variety meats such as liver, kidneys and heart to the 1 to 2 day group. If you will not cook it within those days, freeze it right away: FSIS says food frozen at peak quality comes out tasting better.

Fish and shellfish

The sources differ here. The FoodSafety.gov chart gives fin fish 1 to 3 days in the refrigerator, while FSIS's refrigeration page lists fresh fish and shellfish together at 1 to 2 days. To stay within both, plan on 1 to 2 days.

Eggs

FSIS recommends keeping eggs in their original carton on a shelf in the coldest part of the refrigerator, not in the door, where the temperature changes each time it opens. An egg that freezes by accident and cracks should be thrown out, FSIS says. For unopened liquid egg substitutes the chart says 1 week, FSIS's refrigeration page 10 days; both say 3 days once opened.

Reading the pack date on an egg carton

Cartons with the USDA grade shield must show a pack date, the day the eggs were washed, graded and packed. FSIS explains that it is a three-digit day of the year: 001 is January 1 and 365 is December 31. A sell-by date on such a carton may not be more than 30 days after the pack date. Whether a carton carries a sell-by or expiration date at all depends on state egg laws.

Example values: a carton stamped 296 was packed on day 296 of 2026, which is Friday, October 23, 2026. Any sell-by date on it can be no later than Nov 22, 2026. If you bought it on Mon, Oct 26, the FoodKeeper's 3 to 5 weeks from purchase run to between Nov 16, 2026 and Nov 30, 2026. The Julian date converter turns a day-of-year code like 296 into a calendar date, and the add or subtract days calculator adds the weeks.

Bacon, hot dogs, deli meat and ham

Opening the package starts the short clock: unopened luncheon meat keeps 2 weeks, opened or deli-sliced 3 to 5 days. The chart has ten rows for ham alone, from canned hams labeled "Keep Refrigerated" to prosciutto, so check your type against the full chart.

Leftovers, soups and salads

For cooked leftovers in the refrigerator, the federal sources agree: FSIS's leftovers page says leftovers keep 3 to 4 days, and its refrigeration page gives 3 to 4 days for cooked pieces, casseroles, gravy, broth, soups and stews. As a rule of thumb for a weekly clean-out, FSIS uses 4 days for cooked leftovers and 1 to 2 days for raw poultry and ground meat. FSIS's refrigeration page gives 3 to 5 days for store-prepared or homemade egg, chicken, tuna, ham and macaroni salads, where the FoodSafety.gov chart says 3 to 4.

For the freezer the figures vary more, because they are quality estimates. FSIS's leftovers page says 3 to 4 months, the FoodSafety.gov chart says 2 to 6 months for cooked meat or poultry, and the freezer chart on FSIS's Freezing and Food Safety page gives these:

None of these is a safety cutoff. FSIS says leftovers are safe indefinitely in the freezer but can lose moisture and flavor the longer they are stored. To cool them quickly, FSIS advises shallow containers, smaller pieces for roasts and turkeys, and airtight wrapping.

Milk, cheese and other dairy

The FoodKeeper counts most of these refrigerator times from the date of purchase:

For milk and sour cream the FoodKeeper simply points to the use-by date on the package. "Not recommended" in the freezer column is a quality note: FSIS lists cream sauces among the foods that simply do not freeze well, and the same goes for mayonnaise and lettuce.

Why frozen food stays safe but gets worse

FSIS puts it plainly: food stored constantly at 0 °F will always be safe, and only the quality suffers with long storage. Freezing slows the movement of molecules so that microbes go dormant. It does not kill them. FSIS says bacteria, yeasts and molds are inactivated at 0 °F but become active again once the food thaws, and then grow at about the same rate as on fresh food. A thawed package has to be handled like any other perishable food.

What changes in the freezer is quality:

• Freezer burn. Grayish-brown, leathery spots where air reached the surface. FSIS says it does not make food unsafe, only dry in spots; cut those parts away before or after cooking.
• Enzymes. Freezing slows enzymes but does not stop them, which is why most vegetables are blanched before freezing.
• Ice crystals. Slow freezing creates large ice crystals that damage cells and make meat drip and lose juice when thawed. FSIS says a food 2 inches (5.1 cm) thick should ideally freeze completely in about 2 hours; spread new packages out in one layer and stack them only once frozen solid.
• Raw versus cooked. Raw meat and poultry keep their quality longer than cooked, because cooking already removed moisture. That is why a raw whole turkey gets a year and cooked poultry 4 months in the FSIS chart.

FSIS suggests using a refrigerator's freezer compartment that cannot hold 0 °F, or whose door opens often, only for short-term storage. On refreezing, FSIS says food thawed in the refrigerator can go back in the freezer without cooking, with some loss of quality, and cooked food made from previously frozen raw food can be frozen. Food left out of the refrigerator longer than 2 hours (1 hour above 90 °F) should not be refrozen.

What the date on the package means

FSIS distinguishes two kinds of dating. Open dating is a calendar date the manufacturer or retailer prints to show how long the product will be at its best quality. Closed dating, such as a can code, is a production code and not meant to be read as a best-by date.

Except for infant formula, which must carry a use-by date, product dating is not required by federal regulations, and the FDA says the same for packaged food in general. For meat, poultry and egg products, FSIS allows voluntary dates as long as they are truthful and come with a phrase that explains them. There is no uniform wording, so you will see several:

FSIS recommends that manufacturers use "Best if Used By", and the FDA supports the industry's move to make it the standard phrase. The reason is waste: USDA estimates that 30 percent of the food supply is lost or wasted at the retail and consumer levels, and the FDA estimates that confusion over date labels accounts for about 20 percent of consumer food waste.

What to do when a date passes at home: FSIS says a product should still be safe and wholesome if handled properly until spoilage is evident. Spoiled food develops an off odor, flavor or texture, and if it has, it should not be eaten. FSIS adds that a change in the color of meat or poultry on its own is not a sign of spoilage. Food left out too long or thawed the wrong way is unsafe whatever the label says.

Label leftovers and count the days

A storage time is only useful if you know when the clock started. A strip of tape and a marker on each container is enough: write what it is and the day it was cooked or opened. For the freezer, add the month it went in.

Example values: a pot of chicken soup is cooked on Sunday, October 25, 2026. It is split into shallow containers, half for the fridge and half for the freezer.

• Fridge portion. Soups and stews keep 3 to 4 days. In the add or subtract days calculator, Sun, Oct 25 plus 3 days is Wednesday, October 28, 2026 and plus 4 days is Thursday, October 29, 2026. The day of cooking counts as day 0. The label reads "Chicken soup, cooked Sun, Oct 25, use by Wed, Oct 28 to Thu, Oct 29".
• Freezer portion. The FoodSafety.gov chart gives soups and stews 2 to 3 months for quality. Adding months in the same calculator gives Dec 25, 2026 to Jan 25, 2027. After that it is still safe, just past its best.
• Checking an old label. If you find a container on Wed, Oct 28 and want to know how old it is, the days between dates calculator gives 3 days from Sun, Oct 25 to Wed, Oct 28, still inside the 3 to 4 days.

The federal pages do not say whether the day of cooking counts as day 1, so take the low end of a range when in doubt. When a thawed freezer portion moves to the fridge, FSIS says to use it within 3 to 4 days; write the thaw date on it too.

After a power outage

FSIS and FoodSafety.gov give the same numbers. With the doors kept closed:

• Refrigerator: keeps food safe for up to 4 hours. For longer outages, FSIS suggests a cooler with enough ice to hold 40 °F or below.
• Full freezer: holds its temperature for about 48 hours.
• Half-full freezer: about 24 hours. A refrigerator's freezer compartment may not last as long, FSIS notes.
• Dry ice: FSIS says 50 lb (23 kg) of dry ice should hold an 18 cubic foot (510 liter) freezer for 2 days. Do not touch it with bare hands or put it in direct contact with food.

Do not store food outside in the snow; FSIS warns that the sun can thaw it and animals can reach it, and suggests making ice outdoors in buckets or milk containers instead.

When the power comes back

FSIS says never to taste food to judge its safety. For the refrigerator, it lists what to throw out after more than 4 hours without power: raw, cooked or leftover meat, poultry, fish and eggs; deli meat and hot dogs; casseroles, soups, stews, pizza and mixed salads; milk, cream, yogurt, sour cream and soft cheeses; cut fruits and vegetables and cooked vegetables; creamy dressings, doughs, custard pies and cream-filled pastries; and garlic stored in oil. Opened mayonnaise, tartar sauce and horseradish go if they were above 50 °F (10 °C) for more than 8 hours.

Foods FSIS lists as safe to eat: hard and processed cheeses, butter and margarine, whole fresh fruits and vegetables, high-acid condiments such as mustard, ketchup, pickles and jam, and bread, rolls and fruit pies. The two federal sources differ on opened fruit juice: FSIS's list puts opened fruit juices among the foods to discard, while the FoodSafety.gov chart marks opened fruit juice as keep. The FoodSafety.gov chart goes item by item if you need more detail.

For the freezer, FSIS says food that is partly frozen, still has ice crystals, or is as cold as if it were in a refrigerator (40 °F) can be refrozen or used, though quality may suffer. Raw food does not need to be cooked before refreezing. Throw out anything that was warmer than 40 °F for more than 2 hours, anything raw meat juices dripped onto, and, for quality's sake, soft or melted ice cream. An appliance thermometer in each compartment answers the 40 °F question; the temperature converter helps if yours reads in Celsius. When in doubt, FSIS says, throw it out.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• FoodSafety.gov (US Department of Health and Human Services): Cold Food Storage Chart, date last reviewed September 19, 2023 (all refrigerator and freezer times in the meat, fish, egg, deli and leftover tables; freezer times are for quality only)
• USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Leftovers and Food Safety (leftovers 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator or 3 to 4 months frozen; shallow containers; wrapping)
• USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Freezing and Food Safety (food at 0 °F always safe; microbes dormant, active again after thawing; enzymes; freezer burn; rapid freezing; refreezing; freezer storage chart; freezer during a power outage)
• USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Refrigeration and Food Safety (spoilage versus pathogenic bacteria; Listeria grows at refrigerator temperatures; weekly clean-out; storage times for refrigerated foods, including fresh fish and shellfish 1 to 2 days)
• USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Food Product Dating (open and closed dating; dates not federally required except on infant formula; Best if Used By, Sell-By, Use-By, Freeze-By; egg pack dates; can codes)
• USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Keep Your Food Safe During Emergencies: Power Outages, Floods and Fires (refrigerator 4 hours; full freezer 48 hours, half full 24 hours; dry ice; which foods to discard or keep)
• FoodSafety.gov: Food Safety During Power Outage, date last reviewed August 8, 2024 (item-by-item charts for refrigerated and frozen food after an outage)
• FoodSafety.gov: FoodKeeper App, developed by USDA FSIS with Cornell University and the Food Marketing Institute (dairy times in the dairy table; egg times counted from the date of purchase)
• US Food and Drug Administration: How to Cut Food Waste and Maintain Food Safety (date labels not required except on infant formula; FDA supports Best if Used By; date-label confusion about 20 percent of consumer food waste)
• NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8: Factors for Units Listed Alphabetically (pound to kilogram, cubic foot to cubic meter)

Written by Tobias. Updated October 22, 2026.