How to store food
Counter, fridge or freezer, how long each one keeps, and the small habits that make it last longer.
How to store food: what keeps, what is still fine, and what has to go.
Foodlarder shows you how to store food at home, one ingredient at a time. Each guide gives the counter, fridge and freezer times, the signs that it has turned, and a plain verdict on what to keep.
Every
Storage time cites its source
Three
Verdicts: use it, trim it or throw it out
Zero
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On every ingredient page
Store food, spot spoilage, find a substitute
Every guide answers the same three questions in the same order, so you can find the answer with the ingredient in your hand. That way, learning how to store food never means reading a whole article first.
How to tell it has gone bad
What it looks like as it turns, stage by stage, with a plain verdict on whether to use it, trim it or throw it out.
What to use instead
Substitutes for when yours is gone or past saving, and what each one changes in the dish.
Ingredients
How to store food, ingredient by ingredient
Rice
Dry white rice keeps for years, brown rice for about six months, and cooked rice for three or four days. Cupboard, fridge, freezer, weevils and the overnight rule.
Tomatoes
Keep tomatoes on the counter until ripe, then eat them or refrigerate them for a few days. Fridge or counter, green tomatoes before frost, freezing, and when to toss.
Mushrooms
Fresh mushrooms keep about 3 to 7 days in the fridge in a paper bag. How to store them, why plastic makes them slimy, how to freeze them, and when to toss.
Apples
Apples keep 2 to 4 weeks on the counter and a month or more in the fridge. How to store and freeze them, why one bad apple matters, and when to toss one.
Bananas
Bananas keep up to a week on the counter and 5 to 7 more days in the fridge once ripe. How to store and freeze them, why the peel turns black, and when to toss.
Bread
Homemade bread keeps 3 to 5 days wrapped on the counter and about 3 months frozen. How to store soft, crusty and sourdough loaves, and why the fridge stales them.
Bagels
Fresh bagels keep 1 to 2 days on the counter and about 3 months in the freezer. Why the fridge makes them stale, and how to freeze and reheat them.
Spinach
Fresh spinach keeps 3 to 7 days in the fridge, and an opened bag about 2. How to store it, freeze it, and when slimy leaves mean the bag goes.
About
Hi, I am Emilly and I write Foodlarder.
I am Emilly White, a food blogger from Illinois, and I have been writing about food since 2015. Every Foodlarder guide names the published guidance behind its storage times.
Storage times come from university extension and food safety sources. Then I write up what matters standing at the counter: how to choose the ingredient, where it keeps, how to freeze it and what each stage of spoiling means.
Based in Illinois
Food blogger since 2015
Every sponsor labelled
Read more about Emilly
Why we started
Most of the food thrown out of this kitchen started as a good intention in the wrong container.
Where our advice on how to store food comes from
Storage times come from university extension services and food safety agencies, such as the USDA FoodKeeper and the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
Each guide names its sources and links to them, so you can check any storage time yourself.
Every spoilage stage comes with a plain verdict: use it, trim it or throw it out.
Sponsored and affiliate links are labelled where they appear.
The Sunday Shelf
Learn to store food better, one guide at a time.
New ingredient guides when they go up, plus one storage tip worth knowing. Anything sponsored is labelled.