Backed by USDA FoodKeeper data
How long does it really keep?
Official storage times for 466 foods — pantry, refrigerator, and freezer — turned into a use-by date for the day you stored it.
Plain language works: “leftover chicken”, “opened yogurt”, “an egg”.
Three places food lives
Pantry
Shelf-stable staples — grains, cans, oils, unopened jars — and anything the label says can wait for the fridge.
Cool, dry, away from lightRefrigerator
The short-clock zone: most fresh and opened foods get days to weeks, and the official times assume prompt chilling.
At or below 40 °F (4 °C)Freezer
Frozen at 0 °F, food stays safe indefinitely — freezer windows describe when quality starts to slip, and we label them that way.
0 °F (−18 °C)Browse by category
- Baby Food7 foods
- Baked Goods69 foods
- Beverages24 foods
- Condiments, Sauces & Canned Goods44 foods
- Dairy Products & Eggs33 foods
- Deli & Prepared Foods30 foods
- Food Purchased Frozen23 foods
- Grains, Beans & Pasta24 foods
- Meat25 foods
- Poultry23 foods
- Produce95 foods
- Seafood18 foods
- Shelf Stable Foods83 foods
- Vegetarian Proteins5 foods
Three steps to a straight answer
Search the way you talk — “cooked rice”, “opened milk” — and pick the exact type when it matters.
Pantry, refrigerator, or freezer — with the official time for each, and unavailable methods clearly marked.
Tell us when you stored it and we calculate the recommended use-by window, assumptions spelled out.
Guidelines, with their homework attached
Every time range on this site comes from the USDA FSIS FoodKeeper dataset — the same data behind the federal FoodKeeper app — pinned to a checksummed snapshot so you can see exactly what we're quoting. A storage window is a quality-and-safety guideline, never proof that a specific item is safe. Read the methodology or check the sources.
- 661 official records · 466 foods
- Dataset v128 · snapshot 2026-07-24
- Public-domain data (CC0 1.0)
- Example: chicken — 1 to 2 days refrigerated