Food Safety & Dating
USDA FoodKeeper, FDA, ServSafe — use-by, best-by, danger zone, and food safety reference.
The "is this still good?" page. For pantry tracking that flags expiration see Pantry Inventory & Grocy; for thermometer hardware that enforces safe internal temps see Connected Thermometers; for allergen / intolerance overlays see Allergen & Intolerance Tracking; for food databases backing label-data lookups see Food Databases & Open Food Facts.
Free reference (the right starting place)
- ★ ★ USDA FoodKeeper — free; mobile app + web; the canonical use-by / best-by / freezer-life reference for the US. Per-product storage life for fridge / freezer / pantry.
- ★ USDA FSIS / FDA food safety pages — free; recall feeds, danger-zone explainers, internal-temperature tables.
- CDC Food Safety — free; outbreak monitoring; norovirus / listeria / salmonella reporting.
- WHO Five Keys to Safer Food — free reference.
Internal temperature reference (memorize this)
| Food | Safe internal (°F / °C) |
|---|---|
| Whole poultry / ground poultry | 165 / 74 |
| Ground meat (beef, pork, lamb) | 160 / 71 |
| Whole muscle beef / lamb / pork | 145 / 63 + 3 min rest |
| Fish | 145 / 63 |
| Eggs (cooked) | 160 / 71 (or per recipe) |
| Leftovers reheating | 165 / 74 |
| Casseroles | 165 / 74 |
| Sous vide poultry (long-cook) | 145 / 63 sustained ≥ ~30 min works |
These come from USDA FSIS; sous vide pasteurization tables (Douglas Baldwin's A Practical Guide to Sous Vide, free online) are the right reference for time-temperature equivalents.
The danger zone (the rule that matters most)
- 40°F – 140°F (4°C – 60°C) = the danger zone. Bacterial growth is fastest in this range.
- Two-hour rule: cumulative time in the danger zone should not exceed 2 hours (1 hour above 90°F / 32°C).
- Cooling rule (commercial): 135°F → 70°F in ≤ 2 hours, 70°F → 41°F in ≤ 4 more hours.
Use-by vs best-by vs sell-by
US food dating is regulatory chaos. With one exception (infant formula), dates on US food are quality indicators, not safety indicators:
- "Best by / Best before" — peak quality. Food is generally safe past this; flavor / texture degrades.
- "Use by" — manufacturer's safety / quality cutoff. Closer to a real expiration but still typically conservative.
- "Sell by" — for retailers' inventory rotation; not a consumer date.
- "Expiration / Expires on" — closest to a hard date; uncommon outside infant formula and a few states.
Real expiration is sensory: smell, look, taste a tiny bit. Trust your nose more than the date. (Exceptions: infant formula, deli salads, pre-cut produce, fresh raw meat — be conservative.)
Pro / commercial certifications
- ★ ServSafe — paid (~$30 self-study, ~$180 with proctored exam); the de-facto US food handler certification; required in most commercial kitchens. National Restaurant Association.
- HACCP certification — paid; required for commercial food processing; multiple providers.
- State-specific food handler certs (California, Texas, etc.) — paid; jurisdiction-mandated; cheap.
- FSPCA Preventive Controls — paid; FSMA-required for processors above scale.
HACCP / commercial food safety tools
- MarketMan, PlateIQ, Galley Solutions — paid restaurant inventory + costing with food-safety modules.
- TraceGains, BlueCart — paid commercial supplier compliance.
- HACCPLogger / Mealsy — paid HACCP log software.
- For more on the commercial kitchen tooling adjacent to this, see Point of Sale and Inventory & Asset Management.
Self-host / FOSS
- Grocy expiration tracking — best-effort; you set days-until-expiry per product; the app reminds you. See Pantry Inventory & Grocy.
- Mealie pantry shelflife — added 2024-25; minimal but useful.
- DIY FoodKeeper-shape lookup — USDA publishes the full FoodKeeper data as a CSV; ~600 lines; trivial to embed in your own app.
- NoWaste / Pantry Tracker — closed but cheap; expiration-flag focused.
Recall / contamination feeds
- USDA FSIS Recall API — free JSON / RSS; meat / poultry / egg recalls.
- FDA Recall API — free; broader food + drug + cosmetics.
- CDC Outbreak Investigations — free RSS.
- Government of Canada Food Recalls, EU RASFF, FSANZ — regional analogs.
- Several apps (Yuka, FoodSafety.gov mobile) wrap these.
Specialty references
- Douglas Baldwin's "A Practical Guide to Sous Vide" — free; the pasteurization-by-time-temperature reference.
- FDA Bad Bug Book — free; pathogen reference.
- ServSafe Coursebook — paid; comprehensive.
- Modernist Cuisine vol. 2 — covers food safety in depth.
Practical guidance
- ★ Smell test beats date label. US dating is mostly quality, not safety. Trust your nose.
- Keep your fridge below 40°F / 4°C and your freezer below 0°F / -18°C. Buy a $10 fridge thermometer.
- Cool large pots fast. Ice bath, divide into smaller containers; don't fridge a whole stockpot of soup.
- Wash produce, not chicken. Splashing chicken juice cross-contaminates more than rinsing kills.
- The "one nice cutting board for raw meat" rule. Color-code if you have multiple cooks in the kitchen.
- Sous vide cooks at 130°F (54°C) work if you maintain temp long enough — Baldwin's tables prove it. Don't hold at 130°F overnight without his timing math.
- Reheating leftovers: above 165°F / 74°C. Soup-bowl reheats often miss this; stir + recheck.
- When in doubt, throw it out. Food poisoning costs more than the food.
Pick this if…
- Free reference to keep on your phone: USDA FoodKeeper.
- Pro / commercial: ServSafe + HACCP for your jurisdiction.
- Sous vide depth: Baldwin's A Practical Guide to Sous Vide.
- Pantry expiry tracking: Grocy.
- Building a recall-feed app: FSIS + FDA APIs.
- Family kitchen reminders: any pantry app with shelf-life flags + a fridge thermometer + the FoodKeeper app.