Sure, most foods purchased at a grocery store that don’t come from the produce section have expiration dates on them, but sell by dates are usually scheduled for quality, not for food safety and the foods can generally last longer when stored properly at home. Plus, those expiration dates don’t cover foods left out in the open or in the freezer.
That’s why it’s handy to know the shelf life of your most common groceries based on how they are stored. While it can be hard to remember the shelf life of dozens of different products, this infographic can serve as a handy shelf life cheat sheet and you might even consider printing it out and posting it on the refrigerator just so you’ll always have the shelf life of most of the foods you happen to have in the kitchen right on hand.
