Tuesday, September 23, 2008

How long do foods last without refrigeration?

According to Heinz,
opened ketchup does not need refrigeration and will retain its flavor
for upwards of a month. I found similar recommendations for mustard,
BBQ sauce, and other condiments. Opened jams, jellies, pickles, olives,
honey and so forth do not require refrigeration over the short-term.
All of the above items will last for 1.5 – 5 years when stored unopened
due to the seal keeping out mold spores and bacteria. Always check
canned food for contamination by looking for dents, cracks, or bulging.
If the seal appears broken in any way, carefully discard the food immediately.

Eggs may stay unrefrigerated for a time (fresh eggs longer than commercially-sold eggs). In a quote attributed to Alton Brown,
he states that unrefrigerated eggs age roughly a week’s worth of
refrigerated time in a day (depending on temperature, of course). Given
that eggs typically last 6 – 8 weeks in a refrigerator, that gives you
about a week to eat a fresh egg. A good check for egg freshness is to
see if it floats – if it does, the inner air pocket has expanded and
the egg should probably be discarded.

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