Ideally, you’ll cook lunch or dinner and store the leftovers in the fridge to eat them the next day. However, sometimes we don’t get around to doing that or simply just forget about leftover food. So how long can it just sit there and wait for us to pick it up?
The General Rules
If you want the leftovers to last longer in the fridge, you should make sure to get them in as soon as possible. After two hours, the bacteria and microbes will start spreading, so make sure to avoid leaving leftovers at room temperature for long.
But even when properly stored, the food leftovers should remain in your fridge for more than seven days, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It’s a different story with the freezer, where the leftover food can be kept a lot longer.
Food-to-Food Basis Rules
As you can guess, some food leftovers can remain in the fridge longer than others. For example, salads containing eggs, tuna, or chicken can last three days. It’s the same with cooked meats, rice and soups, and stews. Salads containing just veggies will be alright for up to seven days. But don’t take this as a given and first test for strange look and odor before thinking about eating the leftover food.
