Short answer
Tinned food in undamaged cans keeps long after its best before date, and salt, sugar, rice and dried beans keep almost indefinitely as long as they stay dry. Nuts, wholemeal flour and oils go rancid first and should be eaten within months. A full freezer that stays closed can manage up to two days without power. The fridge lasts roughly seven hours if it was at 4 °C to begin with. Best before is about quality, use by is about safety.
The pantry on three shelves
| Item | Keeps roughly (unopened) | Storage | Warning signs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salt and sugar | More or less indefinitely if kept dry | Dry, in an airtight jar | Damp and lumps (sugar can be broken up) |
| Honey | A very long time | Cool, with the lid on | Crystallisation is normal. Do not give honey to children under one year old |
| White rice and dried beans | A very long time if kept dry | Dry, dark, in an airtight jar | Damp, a musty smell, webbing or tiny insects |
| Tinned food (fully preserved) | Best before is often more than a year ahead, and long after that if the can is undamaged | Cool and dry, not on the floor of a damp storeroom | Bulging, leaking, rust in the seam, hissing or foaming |
| Pasta, porridge oats, crispbread | The best before date, often longer if the packet is intact | Dry and dark | A rancid or stale smell, moths, damp crispbread |
| UHT milk and välling powder | The best before date, as long as the pack is unopened | Room temperature, unopened | Dented or swollen pack, sour smell |
| Nuts, almonds and seeds | Nuts in their shells can keep for several years, shelled ones about half as long and chopped ones the shortest time | Cool and airtight, ideally in the fridge or freezer | A rancid, bitter taste, mould (throw away) |
| Wholemeal flour and wheat germ | Shorter than white flour, because the fat in the germ goes rancid | Cool and dark, in an airtight jar | A rancid smell, lumps, beetles or webbing |
| Cooking oil | The best before date, shorter once opened | Cool and dark, with the cap on | A sharp, rancid smell or taste |
The times apply to correctly stored food and are approximate. The date on the pack takes priority over the table, and for anything with a best before date it is enough to look, smell and taste once the date has passed.
It is a Tuesday in February, six o'clock in the evening. The pasta water has just come to the boil when the lights go out, the extractor fan falls silent and the fridge stops humming. The children find it exciting for about ten minutes. Then come the questions. Can the fish fingers in the freezer be saved? Can we eat the mackerel that went out of date last summer? And what are those little clumps in the packet of oats, anyway?
This guide is about how long food keeps, both on the shelf and in the freezer and fridge when the power goes. What you should have at home is covered in the food preparedness guide, and how to build up your store step by step in the rolling food store.
The pantry on three shelves
It is easier to keep track of your store if you sort it by how quickly things age rather than by what they are. Picture three shelves.
The forever shelf holds salt, sugar, honey, white rice and dried beans. There is almost no water here for bacteria to live on, and as long as the food stays dry it does not go off. Sugar clumps when it gets damp and honey crystallises, but neither becomes dangerous from sitting on the shelf.
The year shelf holds tinned food, pasta, porridge oats, crispbread, UHT milk and välling powder. This is the backbone of a crisis week. These things keep for a long time, but the quality slowly declines. Go by the best before date, and once it has passed, look, smell and taste.
The month shelf holds nuts, almonds, seeds, wholemeal flour, cooking oil and every opened pack. What makes the food here so nourishing is the fat, and it is the fat that goes rancid. Heat, light and air speed things up. Wholemeal flour goes rancid faster than white flour because the fat from the germ is still in it. Nuts in their shells last about twice as long as shelled ones, and chopped nuts the shortest time of all.
For a family with a four-year-old and a seven-year-old, it looks roughly like this. The pasta, the oats and the chopped tomatoes rotate every week and never get old. The tins of coconut milk and mackerel in tomato sauce in the corner are the ones that risk sitting there for three years. The bag of cashews left over from the Christmas baking is already on its way to going rancid.
Tip: Put the month shelf where you see it every day, at eye level in the kitchen cupboard. That is the one to eat from first. The forever shelf is fine right at the back of the store.
Best before or use by
The two dates mean different things. Best before is about quality: taste, colour, crispness and texture. Once the date has passed, the food slowly gets worse, but it does not become dangerous if it has been stored correctly and the packaging is intact. Look, smell and taste. If the food is the way it usually is, it is fine to eat.
Use by is about safety. This date is only used for food that can become dangerous after a short time, which is why it is fairly uncommon. Fresh poultry is always marked with a use by date. Minced meat and fresh fish can be marked either way, depending on the producer. Food with a use by date must be eaten, cooked or frozen on the date at the latest, and after that you throw it away.
If a tin says “best before end of 2028”, it means the producer expects a shelf life of more than 18 months. That is the typical marking on the year shelf.
Tinned food, and when to throw a can away
A fully preserved tin has been heat-treated in a completely airtight can, and the best before date is often set more than a year ahead. As long as the can is undamaged and has been kept cool, it can be used long after the date. The vegetables get softer and the fish a little drier, but that is quality, not safety.
What matters is whether the can is sealed. A dent is fine as long as the can is still sealed. Throw the can away without tasting if:
- the lid or base bulges outwards and springs back when you press it (a blown can),
- the can is leaking or sticky on the outside,
- rust has eaten into the seam, the edge where the lid meets the can,
- it hisses, spurts or foams when you open it, or the contents smell wrong.
Read the packaging on the tins you buy. Some pickled herring and some preserves are semi-preserved and must be kept cold at all times, so they do not belong in the pantry.
Tip: Pour whatever is left in an opened tin into a bowl with a lid. Leftovers should not stay in the tin, because metal can leach into the food once air gets in, especially with acidic foods such as tomatoes and fruit.
The freezer when the power goes
Do not open the freezer. A full freezer that stays closed can stay cold for up to two days. A half-full freezer lasts a shorter time, which is why frozen bottles of water in the gaps are a good habit. They fill the empty space, work as ice packs and become drinking water once they have thawed. Do not fill the bottles all the way, or they may split.
When the power comes back, go through the freezer pack by pack:
- Food that still has ice crystals can be refrozen. The quality gets slightly worse, but safety is not affected.
- Food that has thawed completely but still feels fridge-cold can be refrozen or cooked straight away.
- Raw meat, poultry, fish and shellfish that have got warmer than that: cook it at once or throw it away. This is the food that spoils fastest. Never refreeze it raw.
So if the fish fingers from Tuesday evening still have ice crystals when the power comes back, they can go back in the freezer.
The fridge counts in hours
The fridge loses its cold much faster than the freezer. What matters is how cold it was to begin with. If the fridge was at 4 °C, it takes roughly seven hours to reach 12 °C, and if it was at 8 °C, roughly four hours. Within that time you can look at, smell and taste all the food in the fridge.
At 12 °C most bacteria multiply slowly, and food can stay like that for about a day with low risk. That is why a fridge thermometer that needs no battery is a good buy. Write down the time the power went. If you do not know the temperature or how long the power has been off, assume the worst: room temperature, about 20 °C, for at least a day.
Slow down the warming by opening the door as rarely as possible, moving frozen bottles or frozen food into the fridge, and reading the thermometer every time you do open it. When it is a few degrees above freezing outside, food can sit on the balcony in a cool bag, protected from birds and cats. In a hard frost, the bag also stops the food from freezing.
Even after long outages you can usually save butter, cheese, yoghurt and fil (Swedish soured milk), eggs in their shells, mustard, ketchup, dressing, jam, juice, salami, and whole fruit and vegetables. The milk will probably turn sour and unappetising after a day in the warmth, but that is rarely dangerous. Never taste raw meat or poultry; look, smell and cook it thoroughly instead. If anyone in the family is pregnant, has a weakened immune system or is frail and elderly, and the fridge has been at 15 °C or warmer for more than ten hours, smoked and cured fish, sliced cold meats, hard cheese, feta, prawns in brine and pre-cut leafy greens should be heated through or avoided.
More on the power cut in general, such as heating, light and charging, can be found in the guide to power cuts.
Flour beetles, moths and mice
Tiny creatures in the flour do not mean the kitchen is dirty. They usually come home in packaging from the shop. The first sign is often white webbing in the oats, nuts or dried fruit, or small grey moths fluttering around the ceiling light.
Method:
- Go through all your dry goods, including unopened packets.
- Throw away anything infested. Lightly infested food can be frozen so that the eggs die.
- Empty the cupboard, vacuum the shelves, corners and cracks, and change the vacuum bag straight afterwards.
- Pour flour, oats, rice and nuts into jars with tight-fitting lids. A paper or plastic bag stops neither moths nor beetles.
Moths can keep flying around for several weeks after the source has gone, because the larvae pupate in cracks far from the pantry. Mice gnaw their way through paper, cardboard and thin plastic. If you have seen droppings or gnaw marks, throw away anything they could have reached and move the rest into jars with lids, a little way up off the floor.
Baby food and formula
Your children's food is the one thing in the store where you do not take chances. Keep extra baby food, baby porridge, välling (a Swedish milk-and-cereal drink for small children) and formula at home, enough to last a week.
Made-up formula should be given within an hour, and anything left over is thrown away. That applies when the power is off too. Ready-to-feed formula in small cartons is sterile, needs no water and can be given at room temperature. It is the simplest thing to keep in the store if you have a baby. If you mix powder with boiled water, the water can be stored in a container with a lid. Opened jars of baby food follow the instructions on the pack, and whatever your child has eaten straight from the jar is not saved. Never give honey to children under one year old.
How things work with children in a crisis more generally is covered in the guide to preparedness with children and family.
The quick test: look, smell, taste a little
For anything with a best before date, do the quick test in three steps. First, look for mould, discolouration, webbing and bubbles. Then smell for anything rancid, sour or musty. Finally, taste a small piece and spit it out if it tastes wrong. That covers most things on the year shelf and the month shelf.
The test does not apply everywhere. Never take chances here:
- Bulging, leaking or unsealed cans. Throw away without tasting.
- Formula and baby food that has been left out, was opened a long time ago or comes from damaged packaging.
- Meat, poultry and fish that has passed its use by date.
- Mould on soft food such as yoghurt, crème fraîche and low-sugar jam, and mould on nuts.
Which dinners your store can stretch to over a week is in the crisis menu, and how to cook them without electricity is in the guide cooking without electricity. The storm cooker (a spirit stove) from the canoe trip does the same job at home on the balcony. How long you should be able to manage on your own, according to the authorities in different countries, is covered in how long should you be able to manage on your own.
The fifteen-minute pantry check
Frequently asked questions
How long does tinned food keep after its best before date?
Often a very long time. Best before is about quality, and an undamaged, sealed can that has been kept cool can be used long after the date. Texture and taste get worse over the years, but the food does not become dangerous just because the date has passed. Throw the can away if it bulges, leaks or is not sealed.
How long does a freezer last in a power cut?
A full freezer that stays closed can stay cold for up to two days. A half-full freezer lasts a shorter time. Food that still has ice crystals can be refrozen.
How long does food in the fridge last without power?
If the fridge was at 4 °C when the power went, it takes roughly seven hours to reach 12 °C, and from 8 °C roughly four hours. Within that time you can look at, smell and taste everything. During longer outages, judge each item on its own.
What is the difference between best before and use by?
Best before tells you how long the food keeps its taste and texture, and it is often fine to eat afterwards. Use by is put on food that can become dangerous after a short time, such as fresh poultry. It must be eaten, cooked or frozen on the date at the latest.
Can you refreeze food that has thawed?
Yes, if it still has ice crystals, or if it has thawed completely but still feels fridge-cold. The quality gets worse but safety is not affected. If meat or fish has got warmer than that, cook it straight away or throw it out.
What should you do about flour beetles or moths in the pantry?
Go through all your dry goods, including unopened packets, and throw away anything infested. Lightly infested food can be frozen so that the eggs die. Empty the cupboard, vacuum the shelves and cracks, and change the vacuum bag afterwards.
