How long does food keep?

In a fridge at 40°F or colder, a whole raw chicken keeps 1–2 days, cooked leftovers 3–4 days, eggs in the shell 3–5 weeks and butter 1–2 months. Food kept frozen at 0°F stays safe indefinitely. Below are pantry, fridge and freezer times for 454 foods, opened and unopened.

By Cory, founder of Pantry to Pan · Published October 19, 2026 · Updated October 28, 2026

Written with AI help from the sources listed, and published by Cory. Sources: USDA FoodKeeper, USDA on leftovers and food safety, USDA on the danger zone (40-140°F). Spot a mistake? Tell us and we'll fix it.

The Pantry to Pan food storage guide gives pantry, fridge and freezer times for 454 foods, taken from FoodKeeper, the storage database the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service publishes. Every time on these pages assumes a refrigerator at 40°F or colder and a freezer at 0°F. Fridge times are for safety: raw ground meat and poultry keep 1–2 days, and cooked leftovers 3–4 days, before bacteria can reach unsafe levels. Freezer times are for quality only, because food held at 0°F stays safe indefinitely and just loses flavor and texture over months. Perishable food left between 40°F and 140°F for more than 2 hours, or 1 hour above 90°F, should be thrown out. When a package has a use-by date, the date on the package and these times should both be respected, whichever comes first. A home cook can search below by food name to find its times.