Date labels mostly track quality, while a fridge thermometer tracks safety

Key takeaways

• A 2015 study of city homes, summarized by a food safety nonprofit, found a fridge warmer than 41°F in 43% of them, and studies have found thermometers in only 4% to 9% of home fridges¹.
• Keep your fridge at or below 40°F and your freezer at 0°F, and check both with an appliance thermometer at least once a week, as the FDA advises³.
• Federal rules require a date only on infant formula; the USDA says other foods, handled properly, stay safe past their date until they show signs of spoiling⁵.
• Store potatoes, onions and winter squash out of the fridge, and keep ripening fruit such as apples away from greens and broccoli⁹¹⁰.
• The CDC says home-canned vegetables are the most common cause of U.S. botulism outbreaks, so low-acid foods must be pressure-canned with a tested recipe¹⁴.

When researchers checked refrigerators in city homes for a 2015 study, 43% of the homes had one running warmer than 41°F, according to a summary by the nonprofit Partnership for Food Safety Education¹.

Few owners could have known. Across the studies the Partnership reviewed, only 4% to 9% of home fridges held a thermometer that showed the actual temperature¹. A 2015 study in Ireland and Northern Ireland, led by Queen’s University Belfast for the food safety group safefood, found much the same. More than 40% of fridges ran above the safe range of 0°C to 5°C (32°F to 41°F), and only 6% had a thermometer inside².

A few degrees matter more than they seem to. The Partnership’s summary cites a 2003 risk assessment by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA). It estimated that keeping every home fridge at 40°F or below would cut predicted cases of listeriosis by more than 70%¹. Listeriosis is a serious infection caused by Listeria bacteria, which can keep growing in cold food³.

You choose good produce, buy meat from a farmer you trust, maybe put up tomatoes from the garden. How you store that food decides how it tastes, how much you throw out and whether it stays safe.

This guide covers raw ingredients in the fridge, freezer, pantry and canning shelf, plus date labels. Our batch-cooking guide covers cooked leftovers.

Two numbers protect most of your food: 40 and 0

The FDA’s targets are simple. Keep the refrigerator at or below 40°F (4°C) and the freezer at 0°F (-18°C)³.

The dial inside your fridge won’t tell you either number. A cheap appliance thermometer will, and the FDA ranks it as the most reliable way to check³. Hang one up front in the fridge and another in the freezer, where they’re easy to read, and glance at both at least weekly³.

Cold slows bacteria but doesn’t stop all of them. Listeria can still grow in ready-to-eat foods such as deli meat, especially in a fridge running above 40°F³. That’s why opened lunch meat gets only a few days.

The freezer works differently. Most bacteria survive freezing, but they can’t multiply at 0°F, so frozen food stays safe for as long as it stays frozen³. Only quality fades, and freezer burn, the dry patches on poorly wrapped food, is a quality problem too³.

The FDA also says freezing doesn’t reduce nutrients³. In both appliances, leave room for cold air to move around the food³.

How long raw foods keep, by storage spot

Fridge and freezer times below come from the cold storage chart on the federal FoodSafety.gov site⁴. Freezer times are for quality only. The food stays safe as long as it stays at 0°F⁴. Pantry and counter notes come from the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and extension guides³⁹¹⁰¹⁴.

Food	Fridge (40°F or below)	Freezer (0°F)	Counter or pantry
Raw ground beef or ground poultry	1–2 days	3–4 months	Never
Fresh steaks, chops or roasts	3–5 days	4–12 months	Never
Whole raw chicken or turkey	1–2 days	1 year	Never
Raw poultry pieces	1–2 days	9 months	Never
Fatty fish, such as salmon or tuna	1–3 days	2–3 months	Never
Raw shrimp	3–5 days	6–18 months	Never
Raw eggs in the shell	3–5 weeks	Don’t freeze in shell	Never
Raw yolks or whites, out of shell	2–4 days	12 months	Never
Bacon	1 week	1 month	Never
Hot dogs, opened / unopened	1 week / 2 weeks	1–2 months	Never
Lunch meat, opened or deli-sliced / unopened	3–5 days / 2 weeks	1–2 months	Never
Potatoes, onions, winter squash, garlic	No	Not on chart	Cool, dark, airy spot
Tomatoes and bananas	Only once fully ripe	Not on chart	Counter until ripe
Home-canned jars	After opening	Not on chart	Cool, dark, 50–70°F; use within a year

To freeze eggs, crack them and beat the yolks and whites together first⁴. If an egg freezes in its shell by accident, use it right after it thaws, and toss any with a cracked shell⁴.

Some produce hates the fridge, and some fruit ripens its neighbors

Fruits and vegetables keep living after harvest. Some fruits give off ethylene, a natural gas that speeds ripening. That’s useful on the counter and a problem in the crisper drawer, where it shortens the life of nearby vegetables⁹.

A University of Nebraska–Lincoln Extension guide lists apples, avocados, unripe bananas, peaches, pears, plums and tomatoes among the ethylene producers¹⁰. Broccoli, cabbage, carrots, leafy greens, lettuce and sweet potatoes are among the foods sensitive to it¹⁰. Keep the two groups apart.

Cold is the other trap. Tomatoes and bananas lose flavor and moisture in the fridge, so keep them on the counter until fully ripe¹⁰. Onions, potatoes, winter squash and garlic shouldn’t be refrigerated at all; a cool, dark, airy spot lets them last for months⁹¹⁰.

Potatoes carry an extra reason. The FDA says chilling raw potatoes can raise the amount of acrylamide, a compound that forms in browned starchy food, when you later fry or roast them¹¹. Our cooking-methods guide explains acrylamide.

Here’s a quick sort from University of Florida and Nebraska extension guides⁹¹⁰:

• Counter or pantry: bananas, uncut melons, mangoes, pineapple, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic and winter squash.
• Counter until ripe, then fridge: avocados, peaches, pears, plums, nectarines and kiwifruit.
• Fridge right away: berries, grapes, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, greens, lettuce, mushrooms, peas and sweet corn.
• Fridge, always: any fruit or vegetable you’ve sliced.

Wash produce right before you eat it, not before you store it⁹.

In the pantry, start by checking the cans

Canned food is one of the best tools for eating well on a budget, as long as the can is sound. The FDA says to throw out cans that are swollen, leaking, punctured or deeply rusted³. Do the same with cans dented or crushed badly enough that they won’t stack normally or open with a manual wheel-type opener³. A sticky outside can signal a leak³.

Keep food on separate shelves from cleaning products and other chemicals³. For flour, grains, dried beans and cereal, many cooks rely on tight-lidded containers and a cool, dry shelf, and check them now and then for bugs or off smells.

Discard nuts, peanut butter or legumes that show mold¹³. Our guide to nuts and seeds covers aflatoxin, the mold poison regulators test nuts for.

For storage, a lid that seals matters more than whether the container is glass or plastic. Heating food in plastic raises separate questions, which our upcoming articles on plastics and food-contact materials will cover.

Mold: a few foods can be trimmed, most can’t

Mold on soft food is more than what you see. Its root-like threads can run deep into moist food, and bacteria can grow alongside it¹³. Don’t sniff a moldy item to judge it, since that can cause breathing trouble¹³.

University of Connecticut Extension sorts moldy food into two groups¹²:

• Trim and keep: hard cheeses such as cheddar and Parmesan, and firm produce such as cabbage, bell peppers and carrots. Cut away at least 1 inch around and below the spot, keeping the knife out of the mold.
• Throw out: soft fruits and vegetables, soft cheeses like cottage and cream cheese, yogurt, sour cream, bread and baked goods, and meat or poultry.

Washington State University Extension adds jams and jellies, and shredded, sliced or crumbled cheese, to the discard list¹³. Hard salami and dry-cured country ham are exceptions. Surface mold is normal on them, so scrub it off¹³.

After you toss moldy food, wipe the fridge with 1 tablespoon of baking soda dissolved in a quart of water, then rinse and dry¹². For black mold on the rubber door seal, scrub with 3 teaspoons of bleach in a quart of water¹².

Only infant formula has a federal date rule

This surprises most shoppers: federal rules don’t require a date on food at all, with one exception, infant formula⁵.

When companies add dates anyway, the wording varies. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) explains what each phrase is meant to signal⁵:

Label	What it means	What to do
Best if Used By / Before	Best flavor or quality	Use your senses. It’s not a safety date.
Sell-By	Tells the store how long to display it	Not a safety date. Food can be eaten after it.
Use-By	Last date for peak quality	Not a safety date, except on formula.
Freeze-By	Freeze it by then for best quality	Freeze before the date if you won’t eat it soon.
Use-By on infant formula	Nutrients and flow through the nipple are assured	Don’t buy or use it after the date.

Apart from infant formula, FSIS says food handled properly should stay safe and wholesome past its date until it spoils, with an off smell, flavor or texture⁵. For Listeria-prone foods like opened deli meat, follow the fridge times in the chart above.

Confusion costs real money. In December 2024, Jim Jones, then the FDA’s top food official, cited an estimate that date-label confusion causes about 20% of the food wasted at home⁶. The USDA estimates that a family of four spends at least $1,500 a year on food that goes uneaten⁶.

That month, the two agencies asked the public how date labels should work. Both already recommend that companies voluntarily use “Best if Used By”⁶. They received 6,914 comments⁸.

In November 2025, a Harvard Law School clinic that reviewed the comments reported that the agencies were still working through them, with no new rule yet⁸. A bill to standardize labels nationwide, the Food Date Labeling Act, had been introduced in each of the past five Congresses without moving forward, the clinic noted⁸. Federal action could still come, so check FSIS and FDA for updates.

States moved first. California’s AB 660, signed in September 2024, covers food made on or after July 1, 2026⁷. Any quality date must read “BEST if Used by,” any safety date must read “USE by,” and consumer-facing “sell by” dates are banned⁷.

Infant formula, eggs, and beer and other malt beverages are exempt, and the law doesn’t force companies to add dates⁷. Colorado enacted its own date-label law, House Bill 1166, in 2025, and the two states’ rules differ⁸. Food waste gets its own article later in this series.

Home canning is a proud tradition with one rule you can’t bend

Putting up the harvest is self-reliance at its best, turning a summer garden into winter meals. It also carries the one storage risk that can kill.

Botulism toxin is made by a germ that thrives in sealed, low-oxygen jars of low-acid food¹⁴¹⁵. The toxin attacks the nerves and can cause trouble breathing, paralysis and death¹⁴. You can’t see, smell or taste it, and the CDC says home-canned vegetables are the most common cause of U.S. botulism outbreaks¹⁴.

Low-acid foods have a pH above 4.6. That includes all fresh vegetables, plus figs, meat, poultry, fish, seafood and some tomatoes¹⁴. For these foods, the CDC says pressure canning is the only recommended method¹⁴. The reason is heat: killing botulism spores takes 240°F or more, and a boiling-water canner can’t get that hot¹⁵.

The illness is rare. University of Maryland Extension reported 33 foodborne botulism outbreaks from 1998 to 2008, with 121 illnesses and six deaths, most of them in private homes¹⁵.

It has also become far less deadly. As of 2015, about 3% to 5% of people with foodborne botulism died, down from 60% to 70% until the 1940s and 1950s¹⁵. The extension authors credit better detection and treatment, along with fewer people canning at home¹⁵.

Use this checklist every canning season. Each step comes from the CDC¹⁴.

1. Start with a recipe that follows the USDA’s Complete Guide to Home Canning, which the National Center for Home Food Preservation posts online. Update old family recipes to current times and pressures.
2. Pressure-can all vegetables, meat, poultry and fish. A boiling-water bath doesn’t protect against botulism for these foods.
3. Skip electric multi-cookers for canning, even if one has a “canning” button.
4. Have your dial gauge checked. County extension offices often test them.
5. Label and date every jar. Store jars in a clean, cool, dark place, ideally 50°F to 70°F, and never above 95°F or near a furnace or stove.
6. Can only what you’ll use within a year.
7. Boil before eating. Boil home-canned tomatoes and low-acid foods for 10 minutes below 1,000 feet of elevation. Add 1 minute for each additional 1,000 feet.
8. Throw out any jar that leaks, bulges, spurts liquid or foam, or smells bad. Never taste food to check it.
9. Refrigerate homemade garlic or herb oils, and toss them after 4 days.

When to get help. Botulism is a medical emergency. If anyone has trouble breathing or new muscle weakness after eating home-canned or home-preserved food, call 911. For questions about a possible exposure, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222.

What the evidence supports

Practice or claim	Evidence level	What the research shows
Keeping the fridge at 40°F or below lowers infection risk	Strong evidence	Listeria grows in cold food, faster when warmer; FDA-USDA modeling predicted over 70% fewer cases13
Pressure canning low-acid foods with tested recipes prevents botulism	Strong evidence	Only pressure canners reach the 240°F needed to kill spores1415
Water-bath or multi-cooker canning is fine for vegetables	Evidence says no, or unsafe	CDC says neither protects against botulism for low-acid foods14
Food is unsafe after its “Best if Used By” date	Evidence says no, or unsafe	Except for infant formula, the date signals quality, not safety5
Food at 0°F stays safe indefinitely	Strong evidence	Freezing stops bacterial growth; quality, not safety, declines34
Refrigerating raw potatoes raises acrylamide when they’re later fried or roasted	Promising but early	FDA advises against fridge storage for this reason; whether food levels of acrylamide harm people is still being studied11

Questions readers ask

The bottom line

Good storage starts with numbers you can check: 40°F in the fridge, 0°F in the freezer, and a cheap thermometer to prove it. Give each food its place, from the cool, dark bin for potatoes to the bottom shelf for raw meat, and keep ripening fruit away from greens.

Outside of infant formula, read date labels as advice about quality, and trust your senses and the storage chart for safety. If you can at home, honor the tradition by following tested recipes exactly and pressure-canning every low-acid food.

Related reading

• A stockpot of chili took a day to cool, so batch cook the safer way
• How you cook changes what you eat, so steam more and char less
• A daily handful of nuts holds up in research, but go easy on Brazil nuts
• Frozen peas and candy bars are both processed, and the difference matters
• The healthiest natural habits cost little, and these are the places money still matters

Sources

1. Partnership for Food Safety Education. “Go 40 or Below: The Science Behind the Messages” (summarizing Borrusso PA, et al., Food Protection Trends, 2015; Godwin SL, et al., Food Protection Trends, 2007; and the 2003 FDA/USDA Listeria risk assessment). Fight BAC!, undated. fightbac.org
2. safefood. “A Study of Domestic Fridges on the Island of Ireland” (Koidis T, Queen’s University Belfast). safefood, 2015. safefood.net
3. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “Are You Storing Food Safely?” FDA Consumer Update, content current as of January 2023. fda.gov
4. FoodSafety.gov. “Cold Food Storage Charts.” FoodSafety.gov (federal food safety information site), last reviewed September 2023. foodsafety.gov
5. USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. “Food Product Dating.” FSIS, undated. fsis.usda.gov
6. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “USDA, FDA Seek Information About Food Date Labeling, Aim to Provide Further Clarity, Transparency, and Cost Savings for Consumers.” FDA press announcement, December 3, 2024. fda.gov
7. Betz B. “California Bans Consumer-Facing ‘Sell By’ Food Labels Under New Law Aimed at Reducing Waste.” Fox Business, July 2, 2026. foxbusiness.com
8. Khan A, Shanahan C, Broad Leib E. “Food Date Labeling RFI Responses Review.” Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, November 2025. chlpi.org
9. Hillan J, Peñuela C. “Storing Fresh Fruits and Vegetables” (FCS8707). University of Florida IFAS Extension, revised 2010. journals.flvc.org
10. Griess T. “Proper Produce Storage.” University of Nebraska–Lincoln Extension, 2011.
11. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “Acrylamide and Diet, Food Storage, and Food Preparation.” FDA, content current as of March 5, 2024. fda.gov
12. Goldberg A, Avelino D, Duffy V. “Handling Food with Mold” (EXT063). UConn Extension, April 2024. extension.uconn.edu
13. Pirtle J. “Food Safety and Preservation: Molds on Food.” Washington State University Extension, Lewis County, undated. wpcdn.web.wsu.edu
14. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Home-Canned Foods” (Botulism: Prevention). CDC, April 2024, updated December 2025. cdc.gov
15. Henley SC, Serio T, Ridgeway B. “Clostridium botulinum: A Food Safety Risk to Home Food Preservation” (FS-1031). University of Maryland Extension, December 2015.