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Food storage shelf-life and rotation list
Pick a food, the day you packed or bought it, and how it is stored. Build a list sorted by the date you should use it.
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How to read the dates
These are planning ranges for food that stays cool, dry, and sealed. They are not a manufacturer’s expiry and they are not a promise that the food is safe. Quality falls off before the date, and it falls off quickly once a pack is opened.
White rice, dry beans, lentils, and wheat berries are given about two years in a normal pantry and about twenty years in a sealed mylar bag with an oxygen absorber, kept cool. Brown rice, flour, oats, and oil are much shorter because of the fats in them. Sugar, honey, and salt have no practical expiry if they stay dry and clean. Canned food uses a pantry range from the day you bought it, because the tin is already the container.
The list sorts soonest first so you can cook from the top.
How to build a rotation list
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Step 1
Enter the food and the pack date
Use the day you bought it when you did not pack it yourself.
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Step 2
Match the storage
A mylar date only applies if the bag stays sealed and cool. A pantry date is the ordinary cupboard.
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Step 3
Add the next item
The table re-sorts. Remove a row when you have eaten it.
Shelf-life questions
Why is brown rice so much shorter?
The bran still contains oil. That oil goes rancid. White rice has had most of that removed, which is why it keeps.
Does the fridge help oil?
Cool and dark slows rancidity. The fridge line is there for oil and peanut butter. It does not turn a fatty food into a twenty-year store.
What about a date already printed on the tin?
Prefer the printed date when you have one. Use this tool for food you packed yourself, or when the printed date is unreadable.
Related
A date in a list helps only if the same date is on the food.