Posted on
February 06, 2025 by
The VRG Weblog Editor
Adobe Inventory photograph
by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD
Possibly you made a giant pot of soup and couldn’t end it in a single, and even two days. Or possibly you went out to eat and understanding that you simply couldn’t end the whole lot that you simply ordered, introduced some meals house with you. Leftovers are part of life for many individuals. I really like having leftovers that I can reheat and eat for lunch or dinner.
Whereas leftovers are nice, nobody desires to get sick from consuming spoiled meals. Simply how lengthy can leftovers be safely saved?
Based on the Meals Security and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the USDA, leftovers may be saved within the fridge for 3 to 4 days. One useful trick is to write down a date 3 to 4 days from the time a leftover was first refrigerated on a sticker or a chunk of masking tape that you simply place on the container of meals. That method you’ll know that that is the final date to eat the meals. Should you want, you may arrange an alert in your telephone to remind you to both eat the meals or discard it.
Should you don’t assume you’ll eat all the meals inside 3 or 4 days, you may freeze all of it or freeze the quantity you don’t assume you’ll eat. Based on the FSIS, correctly packaged leftovers may be saved within the freezer for 3 to 4 months with out a loss in high quality. After that, the meals remains to be suitable for eating however could also be dried out and never as flavorful. I preserve a listing of frozen leftovers on my fridge to remind me that they’re there ready for use for a straightforward meal.
For the sake of meals security, leftovers ought to be refrigerated inside 2 hours of being cooked. If it’s a sizzling day, and the meals has been sitting out in a spot the place the air temperature is above 90 levels Fahrenheit, the meals ought to be refrigerated inside an hour of being cooked.
Chilly perishable meals akin to hummus or tofu salad ought to be discarded in the event that they’ve been disregarded of the fridge for greater than 2 hours at room temperature or for greater than 1 hour if the air temperature is above 90 levels Fahrenheit.
To learn extra about meals security see:
Meals Security for Vegan Events
A Fast Meals Security Assessment
Diet Hotline (see web page 2)
