Preserving the Pantry during the Time of Corona Quarantine (and Every Day)
Since you are a Domestic Goddess, can you help with the fridge and expiration dates on food?
I know that there is a lot of good research (something you are great at culling) out there about what is “real expiration date” and what is I think “freshest.” I don’t want to get a foodborne illness but also don’t want to throw away perfectly fine food staples. Preserving food and organizing the fridge has never seemed more important (I have a vague understanding that certain parts of the fridge are meant for certain foods because they run colder, etc.). I figure now is a good time to learn how!
I used this guide (from Melissa Clark at the NY Times) when I was stocking up to buy from the supermarket for my family’s shelter-at-home and self-quarantine.
Can you help me with a reasonable cheat sheet?
Yes, I can!
First, on how to best organize a fridge by temperature.
I followed this guide from The Kitchn pretty much down to the letter. It helps organize your fridge for food safety and by the way restaurants and professionals do it. I can’t really improve on it in any real way. So let’s move on to the minefield that is expiration dates.
Understanding Expirations Dates and Regulations
Here’s the thing about expiration dates: The only packaged product category that is actually required by law to provide an expiration date is baby formula. That’s it!
That means any other time you see an expiration date (or a best-before or sell-by date), it’s been voluntarily offered by the manufacturer. Obviously, no food manufacturer wants to make the news because of an e-coli outbreak, so many times these dates are really just cautious (even overly cautious) estimates. (Or, if you want to be super cynical, they’re a way to get you to toss perfectly-fine food and speed up your repurchase rate.) But most of the time, the date is more of a “quality” guideline to when the product might be past peak freshness and flavor, but absolutely not actually spoiled or dangerous to eat.
So what our brains are reading as “expiration dates danger danger eat at your peril” have absolutely nothing to do with safety and everything to do with that nebulous/debatable definition of “quality.”
There are no uniform or universally accepted descriptions used on food labels for open dating in the United States. As a result, there are a wide variety of phrases used on labels to describe quality dates.
Examples of commonly used phrases:
- A “Best if Used By/Before” date indicates when a product will be of best flavor or quality. It is not a purchase or safety date.
- A “Sell-By” date tells the store how long to display the product for sale for inventory management. It is not a safety date.
- A “Use-By” date is the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. It is not a safety date except for when used on infant formula,
- A “Freeze-By” date indicates when a product should be frozen to maintain peak quality. It is not a purchase or safety date.
Unfortunately, confusion over these dates leads to a tremendous amount of food waste by consumers, stores, restaurants, you name it. The average American wastes about $640 of food a year, with an estimated total price tag of $218 billion in waste. Meanwhile, one in nine Americans is struggling with hunger as I type this.
So really, really think before you toss food in the trash.
Some commonsense guidelines about Food Product Dating:
1. Let your eyes, nose, and tongue be your guide.
The reality is if a food looks okay, smells okay…it actually is okay. And foods that have gone stale or lost some texture/flavor are also still okay to eat from a safety perspective. With the exception of infant formula, most foods are perfectly safe to eat after the date on their packaging — provided they’ve been stored, chilled, frozen correctly — up until the point of visible, obvious spoilage.
(Also remember: Viruses cannot grow in food, and not all food spoilage is caused by pathogenic bacteria — which can cause illness — but by the much more common spoilage bacteria. This bacteria will NOT cause illness, but will just make the food smell or taste bad. More science available here from the USDA.)
Rotten vegetables will be obviously rotten. Spoiled milk will smell bad and look chunky. If it still seems debatable, a tiny sip may be pretty unpleasant but isn’t going to make you immediately or violently ill. Spoiled meat will have an obvious, unmistakable odor.
Anything with visible mold and fuzz should likewise be tossed — but even here there’s some leeway with dairy products that naturally already contain bacteria like certain soft cheeses, yogurt, etc. I read this article at Well and Good a few months ago and it blew my damn mind…I have thrown out so much cheese, glorious cheese, that likely didn’t deserve it. You can safely cut or scoop out small amounts of mold that doesn’t go beyond the surface and you will be absolutely fine.
Stale crackers and cookies can be re-crisped in the oven. And as Melissa Clark noted in her pantry guide, vegetables that have gone soft (but not rotten) can be perked up in a bowl of ice water.
2. Shelf-stable foods mean exactly that.
Shelf-stable products in your pantry are safe to keep and eat for a really long time. Like, multiple years. This category includes a LOT of the stuff most of us have been stocking up on lately: canned goods, dried beans, pasta, rice, anything sold in retort pouches or asceptic packaging, etc. (Dented cans are fine, rusty cans not so much.) Once opened, most canned or jarred products are best moved to the fridge and will remain safe to eat for a few days, until you smell or see evidence of spoiling. The USDA has storage guidelines for shelf-stable foods, both unopened and opened, here and answers a lot of frequently asked questions.
3. When in doubt, freeze.
Food bacteria — pathogenic or spoilage — does not grow in the freezer, no matter how long it’s been there. True, it probably won’t taste as good, but flavor can always be freshened up with some extra seasoning. The USDA also has a freezer storage chart here, but again, it’s a taste and quality guide, NOT safety. Anything frozen is safe to eat indefinitely (according to the USDA), so go ahead and add some sturdy freezer bags and Gladware containers to your quarantine stash, and package up that leftover chicken broth, tomato paste, cilantro, bread, grated cheese or one last lone hot dog — basically anything that’s been sitting in the fridge for more than a few days and you don’t have immediate plans for, even if mostly for peace of mind. Whenever I freeze something, I usually do a quick web search to see if there’s any specific tips or tricks for freezing and/or defrosting that product — nine times out of 10 I end up getting guidance from The Spruce Eats or Lifehacker.
4. Repackage your food once opened.
This is more for preserving that ineffable “freshness and peak flavor” than safety, but once you open a product that isn’t resealable or individually wrapped, transfer it to a sealable bag or airtight container. This will keep your flour and other baking supplies, cereals, snacks like cookies, crackers, dried pasta, etc. fresher longer (and lower your chance of other not-nice-things like pantry moths or weevils). Bag/chip clips are also handy, although their consistent use seems to be beyond my children’s skills and abilities.
