Works For Me Wednesday: Food Question
March 5th, 2008 | 
Author: Today is Works For Me Wednesday: Backwards Edition over at Rocks in My Dryer. Typically, bloggers offer advice on things that work for them. However, in Backwards Edition, bloggers ask questions to get readers’ help. Here’s my question:
How long does food keep in the refrigerator? I’m thinking of things like store-bought salad dressing, homemade potato salad, lunchmeat, sour cream once it is open, vegetables, leftover cooked vegetables, etc. Also, what is the recommended length of time food keeps in the freezer?
I know there are rules out there for how long things should be kept or how soon they should be eaten after making. I know that vacuum-sealed food keeps longer in the freezer, but what about make-ahead dishes, homemade pizza dough etc? Can pasta be frozen?
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Lunchmeat keeps for about a week. When in doubt, I sniff it. If it smells sickly sweet, toss it! Things like salad dressing I follow the expiration date fairly closely. Sour cream is pretty much good until it starts growing fuzzy things in it!
Most leftovers only last for three to five days in the fridge. For things like potato salad, it’s always better to err on the side of caution and not eat it after three days.
You can freeze things from anywhere to three months to a year, depending on the food and how it is stored. Most leftovers that are frozen are only good for about three months.
I freeze pasta a lot, mixed up with the sauce in single servings for quick meals.
I found this website on safe food handling (I took a course, but even just reading some of the info will be enough to freak you out!).
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Safe_Food_Handling_Fact_Sheets/index.asp
Here’s an article from Real Simple with information on expiration dates:
http://www.realsimple.com/realsimple/content/food/0,21770,676079-1,00.html