Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Blogger is irritating me today and messing up my post, so what I tried to say originally was that this list obviously isn't all vegan, but it's a good place to start. Personally, I've kept jars of spaghetti sauce for weeks, but I've always been weirded out by using it after too much time has passed.

Food Safety: A Guide to Expiration Dates on Pantry and Refrigerator Foods

The FITNESS Food Safety Chart

Most expiration dates printed on packages are intended primarily for store employees, so they know when to remove a product from the shelf. They don't necessarily indicate how long the food will keep once you've opened it. To find out whether it's safe to slather your sandwich with the last smidge of mayo that's been in your fridge for over a month, consult our guide.

After Opening... It’s Good For...
pasta sauce 4 days
pickles 1 to 2 weeks
yogurt 1 to 2 weeks
sour cream 1 to 3 weeks
olives 2 weeks
eggs (in shell) 3 to 5 weeks
salsa 1 month
shredded cheese 1 month
butter 1 to 3 months
mayonnaise 2 months
salad dressing 3 months
cooking oil 4 months
jams, jellies 6 months
ketchup 6 months
margarine 6 months
mustard 1 year
maple syrup 1 year

Originally published in FITNESS magazine, May 2006.

5 comments:

Jen said...

thanks for this post. i was surprised by the time table for olives. they're packed in brine! shouldn't they be good for like an eternity? i have an iron stomach when it comes to that stuff. i'll print the entry off and put it on my fridge. thanks again!

saveyrgeneration said...

how the hell does friggin' yogurt last longer than my beloved pickles?!

allicia said...

I have no idea. I keep pickles around until they are gone. I would just use this list as a general guideline. One tip one of my nutrition teachers taught me was to store jars of spaghetti sauce upside down so that mold spores couldn't grow very well because of the lack of air.

PurpleStick. said...

pickles and olives only last two weeks? Wow, guess its time to throw out my pickles then.
And who would of thought mustard can keep longer than ketchup, I always thought they were the same when it came to going bad. Then again, I thought that those condiments never went bad.

Alexandra (lean and strong) said...

I was really really surprised about the yoghurt and mayo. I tend to leave pasta sauces too long anyway, I forget that just because things are vegan, it doesn't mean thy'll never go off!