The Leftover Rule Food Safety Experts Follow That Most Families Break Every Week
That container in the back of your fridge is on a timer, and it's shorter than you think.
Everybody has one: the mystery container that has been 'probably still fine' for a week and a half. Food safety pros want you to know it is not fine.
The guideline most experts follow is brutally short. Cooked leftovers get three to four days in the fridge. After that, bacteria can thrive without changing the smell or look at all.
That is the scary part. The sniff test only catches spoilage bacteria, the kind that announce themselves. The bacteria that make you sick are often completely undetectable.
The pro move is dating your containers with masking tape, and freezing anything you won't eat by day three. Or do what most of us do: gamble, and lose one dramatic evening a year.
