Cooked leftovers keep three to four days. Raw chicken, ground meat and fresh fish keep one to two. Whole cuts of beef, pork and lamb keep three to five. Eggs keep three to five weeks. Those four numbers cover most of what people actually throw away in doubt, and the full chart below covers the rest. All of it assumes a fridge running at 40°F (4°C) or below — above that, every figure shortens.
The bigger point is that most food discarded on a date label was not unsafe. It was labelled with a quality date, not a safety one, and the two get confused constantly.
The chart
| Food | Fridge life | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cooked leftovers, any dish | 3–4 days | The single most-applied USDA rule |
| Raw poultry | 1–2 days | Freeze if not cooking tomorrow |
| Ground meat | 1–2 days | Larger surface area spoils faster |
| Fresh fish and shellfish | 1–2 days | Buy the day you cook where possible |
| Raw beef, pork, lamb (steaks, chops, roasts) | 3–5 days | Whole muscle keeps longer than mince |
| Bacon | 7 days | |
| Hot dogs, opened pack | 1 week | Unopened, 2 weeks |
| Deli meat, sliced | 3–5 days | |
| Eggs, in shell | 3–5 weeks | Far longer than most people assume |
| Hard-boiled eggs | 1 week | Keep in the shell |
| Milk, opened | 5–7 days | Smell is a reliable guide |
| Hard cheese | 3–4 weeks opened | Cut mould off, it’s fine |
| Soft cheese | 1 week opened | Discard entirely if mouldy |
| Yoghurt | 1–2 weeks | Often good past the date |
| Leafy greens, washed bagged | 3–5 days | |
| Berries | 3–7 days | Don’t wash until eating |
| Cut fruit or vegetables | 3–4 days | Cut surfaces spoil fast |
| Cooked rice and pasta | 3–4 days | Cool quickly, refrigerate promptly |
| Soups and stews | 3–4 days | |
| Opened jars (jam, sauces, pickles) | Weeks to months | Acid and sugar preserve them |
Use-by, best-before, sell-by: what they actually mean
This is where most avoidable waste happens.
Use-by is the only one that is genuinely about safety, and it appears on highly perishable items. Don’t eat past it, and don’t rely on smell as an override, because the bacteria that cause illness do not necessarily smell of anything.
Best-before (and “best if used by”) is a quality date set by the manufacturer. It marks when the product is at its best, not when it becomes dangerous. Dried pasta, tinned goods, crackers, flour and most store-cupboard items remain perfectly edible long past it.
Sell-by is instruction to the shop, not to you. It exists for stock rotation. Food typically has a meaningful portion of its life left after that date.
Except for use-by dates, none of these are federally required in the US apart from infant formula, and there is no national standard behind the wording — which is exactly why they are so inconsistent between products.
How can you tell if food has actually gone off?
For most items your senses are a better guide than a printed date:
- Slime on meat or vegetables means bacterial growth. Discard.
- Sour or ammonia smell on meat or dairy. Discard.
- Mould on soft foods — soft cheese, yoghurt, bread, jam, soft fruit — means discard the whole thing. Mould threads run far deeper than the visible spot.
- Mould on hard foods — hard cheese, firm carrots, hard salami — can be cut away with an inch of margin around and below it.
- Fizzing or a bulging lid on anything not meant to be fizzy. Discard without tasting.
When it is genuinely ambiguous and the food is high-risk (chicken, fish, rice, cooked dishes), discard it. Food poisoning costs far more than a meal.
Does the fridge shelf matter?
Yes, more than most people expect. The back of the bottom shelf is the coldest and most stable spot — put raw meat there, in a container that cannot drip onto anything below. The door is the warmest and swings most, so it suits condiments, not milk or eggs. The crisper drawers hold humidity for produce.
Storing things in the right zone is a whole subject on its own; our guide to food storage by zone has the full layout.
Why leftovers are the biggest single loss
Three to four days is short, and leftovers get pushed to the back where nobody sees them. Two habits fix most of it: put leftovers in clear containers rather than opaque ones, and label with the date they were cooked. A roll of masking tape and a marker eliminates the entire “how long has this been here?” problem.
Anything you won’t finish in three days should go in the freezer on day one, not day three. Frozen leftovers keep for months and thaw well.
What about food that’s already too far gone?
Peelings, cores, and food that genuinely spoiled still don’t need to go to landfill, where it produces methane. It can go into a compost heap, and the material a home pile can’t take — meat, dairy, cooked leftovers — is handled by the routes in our food waste recycling guide.