Expiry Date Calculator
Pick a food, tell us where you keep it, and get a realistic use-by date in two clicks — typical shelf-life ranges built on USDA FoodKeeper guidance, turned into actual calendar dates.
Most expiry math fails because it pretends there's one magic day. There isn't. Food fades on a curve that depends on the food itself, how fresh it was when you bought it, and above all where you store it. That's why this calculator gives you a window — three to four days, not "Thursday" — and why the window shifts when you flip between fridge, pantry, and freezer.
The windows lean conservative, in the style of the USDA's own FoodKeeper guidance: the number you'd want if someone's dinner actually depended on the answer. Your nose and eyes still get the final say — a range is a planning tool, not a pardon for chicken that smells off.
Use the food expiry date calculator
Food, storage spot, use-by date. Storage options that don't apply are greyed out.
Estimate based on USDA FoodKeeper guidance — the conservative end of the range. When food smells off or looks wrong, trust your senses over any date.
Why the fridge, pantry, and freezer give different answers
Temperature is almost the whole story. Between 40 and 140°F — the range food-safety people call the danger zone — bacteria multiply fast. A steady fridge at 40°F (4°C) or below slows that growth to a crawl; a freezer at 0°F (−18°C) effectively pauses the safety clock altogether, which is why freezer windows above are counted in months and quality, not safety, becomes the limiting factor. For the full rundown on freezing times and technique, see our freezer storage guide.
The same logic explains the pantry column. Shelf-stable foods fight different enemies: air, moisture, heat, and light. That's why brown rice lasts three to six months in the cupboard while white rice from the same aisle keeps one to two years — the natural oils in the bran go rancid long before the grain is unsafe. Storage location isn't a footnote to the date; most of the time it is the date. An apple keeps about a week on the counter and four to six weeks in the crisper; berries give you days in the fridge but eight to twelve months frozen.
The date on the package was never your deadline
Part of the reason people need a food expiration date lookup tool at all: the date printed on the package was never designed to be your decision. In the US, date labels are mostly unregulated at the federal level — infant formula is the notable exception — so manufacturers print dates that describe peak quality and help stores rotate stock, not dates that tell you when food becomes unsafe to eat.
The confusion is expensive. Survey figures covered by NBC News suggest around 80 percent of consumers have thrown food away too early because of date-label confusion — good food binned on a technicality. Add it up and the average family of four wastes roughly $2,900 a year on food that was never actually bad. If that number stings, our food waste app page shows what tracking actually saves.
The honest rule: a printed or computed date is a starting hypothesis. Sight, smell, and texture are the test. When a food fails any of them, the date doesn't matter — out it goes.
Use by vs best by vs sell by — the 20-second version
- Use by. The maker's last date for peak quality. For infant formula it carries real safety weight; for nearly everything else it's still guidance, not law.
- Best by / best if used by. Pure quality. Past it, crackers go stale and spices fade — the food is declining, not dangerous.
- Sell by. An inventory note for the store, not a deadline for you. Milk routinely stays good five to seven days past it, kept cold.
The full breakdown with examples lives in our use by vs best by vs sell by guide.
All 49 foods in one table
Everything the calculator knows, at a glance — a quick "how long does food last" reference for the whole kitchen. Ranges assume proper storage from day one: fridge at 40°F or below, freezer at 0°F, pantry cool and dry.
| Food | Pantry | Fridge | Freezer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apples | 5–7 days | 4–6 weeks | — |
| Avocados | 3–7 days | 2–4 days | — |
| Bananas | 2–5 days | 5–7 days | — |
| Berries (strawberries, blueberries) | — | 2–5 days | 8–12 months |
| Broccoli | — | 3–5 days | 10–12 months |
| Carrots | — | 3–4 weeks | — |
| Citrus fruit (oranges, lemons) | 7–10 days | 2–3 weeks | — |
| Garlic (whole bulb) | 3–5 months | — | — |
| Leafy greens and lettuce | — | 3–7 days | — |
| Onions (whole) | 1–2 months | — | — |
| Potatoes | 3–5 weeks | — | — |
| Tomatoes | 2–5 days | 5–7 days | — |
| Butter | — | 1–2 months | 6–9 months |
| Eggs (in shell) | — | 3–5 weeks | — |
| Hard cheese (cheddar, parmesan) | — | 3–4 weeks | — |
| Milk | — | 5–7 days | 2–3 months |
| Soft cheese (brie, ricotta, cream cheese) | — | 1–2 weeks | — |
| Sour cream | — | 1–2 weeks | — |
| Yogurt | — | 1–2 weeks | — |
| Bacon | — | 5–7 days | 4 weeks |
| Cooked chicken or turkey | — | 3–4 days | 2–6 months |
| Cooked leftovers | — | 3–4 days | 2–3 months |
| Deli meat (opened) | — | 3–5 days | 1–2 months |
| Pork chops (raw) | — | 3–5 days | 4–6 months |
| Raw chicken (pieces or whole) | — | 1–2 days | 9–12 months |
| Raw fish (salmon, white fish) | — | 1–2 days | 2–6 months |
| Raw ground meat (beef, pork, turkey) | — | 1–2 days | 3–4 months |
| Raw sausages | — | 1–2 days | 1–2 months |
| Raw shrimp | — | 1–2 days | 3–6 months |
| Steaks (beef, raw) | — | 3–5 days | 6–12 months |
| Breakfast cereal (opened) | 2–3 months | — | — |
| Brown rice (dry) | 3–6 months | — | — |
| Canned beans and vegetables (low-acid, unopened) | 2–5 years | — | — |
| Canned tomatoes and fruit (high-acid, unopened) | 12–18 months | — | — |
| Dry pasta | 1–2 years | — | — |
| Flour | 6–12 months | — | — |
| Olive oil (opened) | 3–6 months | — | — |
| Peanut butter (opened) | 2–3 months | — | — |
| White rice (dry) | 1–2 years | — | — |
| Bagels | 5–7 days | — | 3–6 months |
| Bread | 5–7 days | — | 3 months |
| Cookies (bakery or homemade) | 2–3 weeks | — | — |
| Muffins and pastries | 2–3 days | — | 2–3 months |
| Tortillas (opened) | 5–7 days | 2–3 weeks | — |
| Frozen dinners and entrees | — | — | 3–6 months |
| Frozen fruit | — | — | 8–12 months |
| Frozen pizza | — | — | 1–2 months |
| Frozen vegetables | — | — | 8–12 months |
| Ice cream (opened) | — | — | 2–4 months |
From one lookup to never thinking about dates again
A calculator is great for the chicken in your hand. It's less great for the forty items you bought on Saturday. Nobody is going to look up forty foods one by one — that's the moment a system should take over.
That's what ShelfLife does. Scan one grocery receipt and every item lands in your inventory with an estimated expiry window already attached — produce, store brands, deli, bakery, everything on the receipt. Estimates come from a multi-provider AI cascade with automatic failover, backed by USDA-derived offline fallback data, and alerts ping you seven, three, and one day before something ages out. It's the difference between checking dates and having them watched.
Take eggs: the calculator above says three to five weeks in the fridge — the same answer as our deep dive on how long eggs last. ShelfLife applies that logic to your whole receipt the moment you scan it, with zero typing. See how the expiration date tracker app works, or join the waitlist below.
Expiry date questions, answered quickly
Is this expiry date calculator exact?
No — and any tool claiming a single exact day is overselling. These are typical ranges based on USDA FoodKeeper guidance for food stored properly from the start. Your actual food depends on how fresh it was at purchase and how steady your storage temperature has been. Use the date as a planning window, then confirm with your senses: smell, texture, and appearance beat any printed or computed date.
Do the fridge times still apply after I open the package?
Opening shortens everything. Exposure to air and microbes restarts the clock, so an opened item trends toward the short end of its range — or shorter. Entries that assume opening say so, like deli meat and peanut butter. The cheapest trick in food storage: write the open date on the lid with a marker.
Does freezing food reset the expiry clock?
It pauses it, not resets it. Freezing at 0°F (-18°C) keeps food safe almost indefinitely, but quality slowly declines — that's why freezer windows exist. Frozen time doesn't count against freshness, but once you thaw (in the fridge, never on the counter), the original countdown resumes.
How is this different from the USDA FoodKeeper app?
Same guidance, faster path. FoodKeeper is the USDA's free reference — authoritative and worth having. This tool puts that style of guidance behind one dropdown so you get a date in two clicks. And if you never want to look anything up again, ShelfLife applies the same kind of estimates to your whole receipt automatically.
Whichever way you run the numbers, the rule that outranks every calculator and every printed date stays the same: if it smells wrong, looks wrong, or feels wrong, it is wrong. When in doubt, throw it out.
Let the app remember for you
Scan your receipt once and every item you bought lands in ShelfLife with a realistic expiry window — no calculator required.
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