How long should you store cooked food in fridge | The Times of India (2024)

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How long should you store cooked food in fridge | The Times of India? ›

07/7​How to store​

Answer From Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D. Leftovers can be kept for 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator. After that, the risk of food poisoning goes up. If you don't think you'll be able to eat leftovers within four days, freeze them right away.

Keep curry in the fridge for up to four days. Your curry needs to cool down to room temperature before placing it in the fridge. Freeze curry for up to six months.

Within 2 hours of cooking food or after it is removed from an appliance keeping it warm, leftovers must be refrigerated. Throw away all perishable foods that have been left in room temperature for more than 2 hours (1 hour if the temperature is over 90° F, such as at an outdoor picnic during summer).

When cooked, leftover vegetables stored in an airtight container will usually keep up to 3–7 days in the refrigerator. Cooked canned vegetables like beans or other legumes generally last 7–10 days with proper storage (2).

USDA recommends using cooked leftovers within 3 to 4 days. There are two different families of bacteria: pathogenic bacteria, the kind that cause foodborne illness, and spoilage bacteria, the kind of bacteria that cause foods to deteriorate and develop unpleasant odors, tastes, and textures.

Cooked vegetables can last three to seven days when stored in an airtight container and refrigerated properly. Vegetables are considered high-risk foods and can spoil fast if improperly refrigerated.

One important note though: as long as you cook meals properly, food will be perfectly safe to eat within seven days. However, by day five, it might not be as tasty. If there's one number to remember from this cheat sheet, it's four. Most meals are good (safe AND tasty) in the fridge for up to four days.

You can use a stovetop to reheat and serve piping hot curry immediately. A takeaway curry stored in the fridge must be consumed in 1 to 2 days, and if you are storing it in the freezer, you can consume it within a month. To reheat chicken curry, directly heat the frozen package or defrost it.

Eating curry kept for long hours after cooking may cause food poisoning due to bacterium called Welch bacillus. In addition to curry, food cooked using a large pan, such as stew and nikujaga (stewed meat and potatoes), may cause food poisoning in many cases.

What bacteria cannot be killed by cooking? ›

Myth: If you let food sit out more than 2 hours, you can make it safe by reheating it really hot. Fact: Some bacteria, such as staphylococcus (staph) and Bacillus cereus, produce toxins not destroyed by high cooking temperatures.

TWO HOURS is the MAXIMUM time perishable foods should be at room temperature (ONE HOUR at temperatures 90 degrees F and higher). This INCLUDES the time they're on the table during your meal. Just ONE bacterium, doubling every 20 minutes, can grow to over 2,097,152 bacteria in 7 hours!

Cooked meat, poultry, and fish curries can be stored in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. However, it is important to heat and cool the meat dishes properly before refrigerating them and make sure you store them in airtight containers.

According to FoodSafety.gov, leftover white or brown rice is safe to eat for four to six days after being cooked and up to six months in the freezer. But that's only the half of it to ensure you don't get sick from a common cause of food poisoning.

4 days. Suppose you've prepared a meal with lots of ingredients, like chicken curry. In that case, you can keep it for as long as it's shortest fridge-life ingredient is safe. In the case of cooked chicken, this will be two days.

Information. The United States Department of Agriculture recommends using cooked leftovers within 3 to 4 days.

For large amounts of leftovers, store them in several small, shallow containers to cool faster. Carefully date leftovers and keep them at the front of the refrigerator where you can see them and use them right away. Discard all leftovers in the refrigerator after four days.

The Two-Hour Rule

Havern explains: "The maximum amount of time perishable foods can [spend] in the danger zone is two hours. At two hours, the food must be consumed, stored correctly, or thrown away. This includes all cooked leftovers, [chopped] fruits and vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy products."