Loading page
About this tool
Look up how long any food keeps in the pantry, fridge or freezer, and check whether leftovers are still safe to eat.
The Food Shelf Life Guide gives the keeping time for 99 everyday foods in three places — pantry or counter, fridge at 4 C or below, and freezer at -18 C — and turns 'when did I store this?' into a verdict. Enter when the food went in and it compares the elapsed hours against that food's window: under 60% used it reads Fresh, 60 to 100% it reads Use today, and past the window it reads Risky for high-risk foods like dairy, eggs, meat, fish and cooked leftovers or Past its best for quality-driven items like bread and produce. Every entry also lists the spoilage signs to check, because bacteria that cause illness do not reliably change the smell or taste.
Open Food Shelf Life Guide on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Under 'Is it still good?' choose the Food from the grouped list, then pick pantry, fridge or freezer — dashed tiles are not recommended for that food.
Set 'Cooked or stored at' to when it went in, or tap a chip such as This morning, Yesterday or A week ago.
Read the verdict — Fresh below 60% of the window, Use today at 60-100%, then Risky or Past its best — with that food's spoilage signs, and press Copy verdict.
Foods are graded high-risk or quality-driven, so an overdue leftover and a stale loaf get different verdicts instead of the same red warning.
Each food carries separate pantry, fridge and freezer windows, including entries marked as unsuitable for a location rather than given a misleading number.
Alongside the time you get the specific things to look for in that food — the pink patches on curd, the slime on cooked rice — so the clock is not the only check.
It divides the hours since you stored the item by that item's window for that location. Up to 60% of the window is Fresh, 60 to 100% is Use today, and over 100% is flagged — Risky for high-risk categories, Past its best for quality ones. It is general guidance, not an inspection of your particular food.
A fridge at 4 C or below and a freezer at -18 C with the food frozen solid. Within a fridge the zones differ: the door swings to 7-10 C, the bottom shelf runs coldest at 1-3 C, and the crisper sits around 4-6 C with more humidity — which is why milk and eggs belong on a middle shelf, not in the door.
Not necessarily. Several common food-poisoning bacteria produce no visible mould, off smell or bad taste, so appearance is a test for quality problems rather than a clearance for safety. If a high-risk food is past its window, discard it rather than taste-testing it.
No — the printed use-by date and the manufacturer's storage instructions take priority, and this guide is informational only. If you are pregnant, feeding a young child, elderly or immunocompromised, follow your national food safety agency's guidance, and speak to a doctor about any suspected foodborne illness.