Most storage charts quote ideal cold storage, around 0°C at 95-100% humidity. Your fridge is warmer and much drier, so real life is a fraction of the published figure. This chart gives both numbers for 27 everyday items, plus where to keep each one and the mistake that ruins it early.
Almost none of it is about safety. In the United States, apart from infant formula, product dating is not required by federal regulation at all, and the manufacturer picks the wording. That is why the same tin can say “Best By” in one shop and “Sell By” in another.
Researchers counted more than 50 different date phrases in use across the US, which is the reason so much edible food is thrown away on the strength of a print date. California’s AB 660 cut that to two. Since 1 July 2026, food sold in the state must say “BEST if Used by” for a quality date and “USE by” for a genuine safety date, with “or Frozen by” and “or Freeze by” variants. Eggs and infant formula are exempt.
It is a state law, so it does not bind a packet sold in Ohio. In practice it is expected to reach much further than California, because a national manufacturer is unlikely to print a separate label for a market that size. So if the wording on your groceries has narrowed to those two phrases, this is why, and the distinction now means something: “BEST if Used by” is about flavour, and “USE by” is the one to take seriously.
So the useful rule is the one FSIS states directly: food that shows no signs of spoilage can be sold, donated and eaten past its labelled date. Judge it by how it looks and smells, not by the print.
Source: USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Food Product Dating.
Leafy greens keep 10 to 14 days in ideal cold storage but realistically last under a week in a home fridge, because domestic fridges are warmer and much drier. Moisture control decides everything: wrap them in a dry towel, keep them in the crisper, and wash only what you are about to eat.
Make it last: Line the box with a dry tea towel and leave the lid slightly open. Condensation is what turns it to slime.
Common mistake: Washing it when you get home. Wet leaves collapse within two days.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Make it last: Keep the head whole and tear leaves as needed - a cut edge browns and rots first.
Common mistake: Storing it next to apples, pears or bananas. Their ethylene turns the edges brown fast.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Make it last: Sturdier than spinach and worth cooking rather than binning when it goes limp - heat rescues it.
Common mistake: Treating limp as spoiled. Limp kale is fine in a soup; yellow kale is not.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Make it last: Stand the stems in a glass of water like flowers and cover loosely. It roughly doubles their life.
Common mistake: Leaving them in the supermarket sleeve, where they sweat and rot from the middle.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Make it last: The one herb that must not go in the fridge - it blackens below about 10°C. Stand it in water on the counter.
Common mistake: Refrigerating it. It will be black within two days.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Berries are the fastest-spoiling thing most people buy: raspberries and blackberries keep only 2 to 3 days even in ideal cold storage, strawberries 3 to 7. Moisture is the cause of nearly all of it. Do not wash them until the moment you eat them, and remove any crushed fruit immediately.
Make it last: Spread them in a single layer on kitchen paper. Stacked berries crush the ones underneath and mould spreads from there.
Common mistake: Washing on arrival. One damp berry infects the punnet within a day.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Make it last: Pull out any soft or bruised one the day you buy them - mould travels by contact.
Common mistake: Hulling them before storing. The cut surface is an open door.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Make it last: Leave them on the stem and unwashed. Far more robust than they look.
Common mistake: Storing them in a sealed bag with no airflow.
Make it last: Ripen on the counter, then move to the fridge the day they give to a thumb. Refrigerating early makes them mealy.
Common mistake: Fridge from day one. The texture never recovers.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Most everyday fruit lasts far longer than people assume, and the common mistake is storage location rather than time. Apples keep for months cold. Bananas ripen everything near them and should be kept apart. Overripe fruit is a baking ingredient, not waste - that is where most of it should go.
Make it last: The single biggest surprise on this page: apples last for months in the fridge and about a week on the counter.
Common mistake: Keeping them in a fruit bowl with everything else. They release ethylene and ripen their neighbours.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Make it last: Black bananas are not rubbish. They are the best possible input for pancakes, cookies and loaf cake.
Common mistake: Storing them touching other fruit. They will ripen the whole bowl in days.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Make it last: Fridge, not the fruit bowl - roughly triples their life. Zest before juicing and freeze the zest.
Common mistake: The counter. A lemon lasts about a week there and a month cold.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Make it last: Move it to the fridge the day it yields to gentle pressure, which buys two or three more days.
Common mistake: Waiting for perfect. The window between hard and brown is about 48 hours.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Vegetables split cleanly into two groups: the ones that want cold and damp, and the ones that are ruined by it. Cucumbers, courgettes, peppers, aubergines and tomatoes all suffer below about 10°C. Mushrooms and broccoli want cold. Getting the location right matters more than the number of days.
Make it last: Never the fridge while ripe - cold destroys the flavour compounds and gives them a mealy texture.
Common mistake: Refrigerating them. It is the most common storage error in any kitchen.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Make it last: Paper bag, not plastic. They need to breathe or they go slimy.
Common mistake: Keeping them in the sealed punnet. Trapped moisture halves their life.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Make it last: Yellowing florets mean it is going, but the stalk is still perfectly good - peel and use it.
Common mistake: Throwing away the stalk, which is the sweetest part.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Make it last: Wrinkling peppers roast better than firm ones - the sugars have concentrated.
Common mistake: Binning them at the first wrinkle.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Make it last: Prefers the warmest part of the fridge - the door - rather than the back where it can chill-damage.
Common mistake: Storing it next to tomatoes or bananas. Ethylene turns it soft and yellow.
Make it last: Do not wash before storing; damp skin goes soft fast.
Common mistake: Leaving it in a plastic bag, which traps moisture against the skin.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Make it last: Store dry in a loosely closed bag. They go limp before they go bad and limp is still cookable.
Common mistake: Washing them on arrival.
Root vegetables are the longest-keeping thing in any kitchen - months rather than weeks - provided they are kept cool, dark and dry. The three rules that matter: never refrigerate potatoes, never store potatoes and onions together, and remove the leafy tops from carrots and beetroot immediately.
Make it last: Cool, dark and ventilated - a paper bag in a low cupboard. Light is what turns them green.
Common mistake: The fridge. Cold converts their starch to sugar and they go unpleasantly sweet and brown when cooked.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Make it last: Dry and airy, never sealed. A hanging net or open basket is ideal.
Common mistake: Storing them beside potatoes. Each accelerates the other; kept apart both last far longer.
Make it last: Whole bulbs keep for months; once you break the head, use it within about ten days.
Common mistake: The fridge, which makes it sprout and turn rubbery.
Make it last: Remove the green tops the moment you get home - they pull moisture out of the root and cut its life to about a fortnight.
Common mistake: Leaving the tops on. It is the difference between two weeks and two months.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Make it last: Same rule as carrots: top them immediately. The greens are edible and cook like chard.
Common mistake: Binning the leaves, which are the best part and go off first.
Make it last: Same treatment as potatoes - cool, dark, never the fridge.
Common mistake: Refrigerating, which gives them a hard core that will not soften however long you cook it.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Make it last: One of the most durable vegetables there is. Peel off the outer leaves and what is underneath is usually perfect.
Common mistake: Judging it by the outer leaves, which always look worse than the head.
Going soft? Recipes to use it up →Riff.kitchen keeps your pantry with expiry dates and plans meals around whatever is closest to going off. Photograph a shelf to add it. Free, no card needed.
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