13 Fridge Staples With Shockingly Short Shelf Lives

Anyone with a refrigerator — pretty much everyone reading this — knows that not all food items have the shelf life of that bottle of ketchup or soy sauce hanging out on the fridge door for months. Some fridge staples have surprisingly brief shelf lives.

Although refrigerator storage is necessary to reduce the growth of harmful bacteria on food and keep it fresh longer, it’s not a magical box that can preserve food indefinitely — that’s called a freezer. Fresh fruits, especially if they are cut, as well as leafy greens, soft cheeses, mushrooms, deli meat, and fresh fish won’t keep for very long in a refrigerator even if you store them properly.

If you have any of the following items in your fridge, keep track of when you put them in there because some of them have a life expectancy not much longer than a mayfly.

Leafy Greens

As a single person who eats a salad almost daily, I can confirm that leafy greens such as baby spinach or butter lettuce won’t last much longer than a week in the refrigerator.

To get the most life out of salad greens, make sure that you don’t wash them before putting them in the refrigerator. Consider wrapping the lettuce in a paper towel to absorb moisture and keep it in the crisper drawer to push its shelf life to the max.

Berries

According to Martha Stewart, fresh strawberries or blueberries will last five to seven days if stored properly. If you prefer raspberries or blackberries, you’ll have to gobble those up in three to five days before they start to collapse into mush in your fridge.

The key to getting the most shelf life out of your berries is to not wash them before you put them in the fridge. Also, try to arrange them in a single layer in an airtight storage container — stacking berries will just squish the ones at the bottom and make them spoil faster.

Milk

The handy thing about buying milk from a grocery store is that an expiration date is printed right on the carton, which eliminates some of the guesswork. According to the USDA, milk will keep approximately one week in a refrigerator after it is opened.

Sour milk has a unique smell, so trust your nose more than a date printed on the carton. Sometimes if you have a small amount of milk left in a carton it will spoil even if the printed expiration date says otherwise. Don’t play around and find out with dairy products — if something smells off, toss it.

Avocados

Did you ever notice that an avocado seems to turn brown minutes after you cut it? Ditto for fresh guacamole. At best, if your cut avocado is not quite ripe, you might get it to keep three days in a fridge. A cut ripe avocado might not even make it overnight in a fridge.

To get the maximum three days out of a cut avocado, sprinkle the fruit’s exposed flesh with lemon or lime juice and seal tightly with plastic wrap. It’s your best bet at eating an avocado that is closer to light yellowish green in color as opposed to brown.

Mushrooms

There is nothing better than cutting a fresh mushroom and breaking the piece in half to hear that satisfying “snap” that lets you know that you’re about to enjoy some fresh fungi. If stored properly, whole mushrooms can last four to seven days in a refrigerator, whereas cut mushrooms will only last one or two days at best.

Unlike other vegetables, mushrooms last longer if they are not in airtight containers that trap moisture in. Instead, store those shrooms in a paper bag or other porous bag that allows air movement.

Soft Cheeses

Soft cheeses such as brie, ricotta, and cream cheese can last at least a week in the refrigerator. Hard cheeses have a longer shelf life and can hang around with no problem for three to four weeks.

If you have a block of hard cheese that has a tiny bit of mold, it’s perfectly safe to cut off the spoiled part and keep the rest. If you see mold on soft cheese or any cheese that is crumbled, sliced, or shredded, toss it all out.

Fresh Fish

If you bought a piece of fresh salmon or are lucky enough to have an ahi bar or sushi bar at your grocery store, you don’t want any raw fish hanging around in your fridge for more than a day or two at best. Cooked fish will last up to four days.

Fresh fish that is ready for consumption should smell like the body of water it came from. If something literally smells fishy or like ammonia, don’t even think about rolling the dice. Food poisoning from spoiled fish is a journey of pain and discomfort that you will never forget.

Cut Fruit

We’ve already discussed the longevity of fresh berries in your fridge, and cut fruit such as pears, apples, and peaches do not fare much better.

Cut fruit stored in airtight containers or a resealable plastic bag will only last three to five days in a refrigerator. By comparison, the same fruit frozen will have similar quality in the freezer 10 to 12 months later, and will still be edible long after that.

Sliced Deli Meat

Before you order up a pound or two of sliced roast beef or other cold cuts from the deli counter, consider how hungry you are and how many people in your household will help you consume said deli meat.

According to the USDA, sliced deli meat stays fresh for only three to five days in a refrigerator. Knowing this, my next few meals are going to have to be roast beef sandwiches if I’m going to use all of it before the government says that I’m pressing my luck.

Sprouts

There is a lot of conflicting information out there about the longevity of alfalfa or bean sprouts in a refrigerator. Although at least one source claims that properly stored sprouts will last six weeks in a fridge, I’ve never encountered a sprout with this kind of fight to stay fresh for that long.

According to Sprouts in a Jar, the key to making your sprouts last is to put them in the refrigerator when they are completely dry — approximately 8 to 10 hours after their final rinse. If you do this and keep the sprouts in an airtight container, you can safely still eat them up to five days later.

Egg Salad and Potato Salad

Both egg salad and potato salad have one common ingredient that determines their longevity in your refrigerator: mayonnaise. Either salad will only last three to five days in a refrigerator, especially if the mayo used in them is homemade and lacks preservatives.

Even if your egg salad still smells OK after five days, don’t risk the world of pain that comes from eating not-so-fresh mayo-based food. Also, if either your egg salad or potato salad was sitting out for some time, say at a picnic, toss whatever wasn’t eaten. It’s just not worth it.

Uncooked Bacon

We know that you can bring home the bacon, but you’ll want to fry it up in the pan sooner than later.

According to Allrecipes, although an unopened package of uncooked bacon will last up to two weeks in a fridge, once you open the package you have, at most, seven days to cook it all. If that’s too much bacon for your household to eat in a one-week period, take out the strips you want to cook initially and freeze the rest.

Clams and Mussels

So you buy live clams and mussels? You’re a risky type, aren’t you?

If you’re sure the mussels and clams you are buying are alive when you buy them (tap their shells and see if they close), then you can keep them in your fridge for three days max if you store them properly. Never store clams and mussels in airtight containers. Instead, place them in a bowl and put water-soaked paper towels on top of them.