Healthy Eating: Food Storage Guide1
Jennifer Hillan and Linda B. Bobroff2
If you don’t shop for groceries often, you probably try to buy food that will last until your next trip to the store. To help you learn how much to buy, here are storage guidelines for some perishable foods.
| Fresh Fruit | |
| 2–5 days | Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cherries |
| 2–4 days | Apricots, bananas, nectarines, peaches, pears, plums, watermelon |
| 1–2 weeks | Grapes, citrus, cranberries, melons (except watermelon) |
| 1 month | Apples |
| Fresh Vegetables | |
| 2–5 days | Broccoli, greens (spinach, kale, collards, etc.), okra, peas, green onion, summer squash |
| 1 week | Beans (snap or wax), cauliflower, celery, cucumber, eggplant, green pepper, salad greens, tomatoes, Brussels sprouts, radishes |
| 1–2 weeks | Cabbage, beets |
| 2–3 weeks | Carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips |
| 3–4 weeks | Potatoes, sweet potatoes |
| Milk Products, Eggs, and Deli Meat | |
| 1 week | Milk, cottage cheese |
| 1–2 weeks | Yogurt |
| 1–2 months | Hard cheese |
| 3–5 weeks | Eggs |
| 3–5 days | Sliced Deli Meat |
Tip: Store fruits and vegetables (except bananas, potatoes, and tomatoes) in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator, and keep your refrigerator below 40°F. Store bananas, potatoes, and tomatoes at room temperature.
Footnotes
1.This document is FCS8695, one in a series of the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. First published: February 2005. Revised: May 2010. This leaflet was originally developed with funding from the Florida Department of Elder Affairs in partnership with state, county, and local agencies. Please visit the EDIS Web site at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.
2.First edition adapted by Jennifer Hillan, MSH, RD, LD/N, former ENAFS nutrition educator/trainer, (with graphic design services by Joyce Lottinville), from the USDA publication, Shopping for Food and Making Meals in Minutes Using the Dietary Guidelines. Subsequent revisions by Linda B. Bobroff, PhD, RD, LD/N, professor, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611.
The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Millie Ferrer-Chancy, Interim Dean.
