How long does frozen food last?
Look up any food here and see its own quality window — the same number its card publishes. And because a frozen food can be safe long past its best, the page says which of those two questions you are asking.
How long will it keep its quality?
Loading the food index…
| Food | Quality window | Verdict |
|---|
Freezer storage times by category
Every window this site publishes, gathered by category. These are the ranges the food cards print; the lowest number in a category is the food that gives up first, and the highest is the one that lasts longest at 0 °F (−18 °C).
| Category | Foods | Quality windows in this category |
|---|---|---|
| Dairy | 41 | 1–6 months · 1 with no freezer window |
| Cheese | 153 | 2–6 months · 2 with no freezer window |
| Eggs | 18 | 1–12 months · 3 with no freezer window |
| Meat & Poultry | 198 | 1–12 months · 1 with no freezer window |
| Seafood | 147 | 2–6 months · 3 with no freezer window |
| Vegetables | 268 | 2–10 months · 14 with no freezer window |
| Fruit | 156 | 1–12 months |
| Herbs & Aromatics | 24 | 2–6 months |
| Baked Goods | 139 | 1–12 months |
| Grains, Rice & Pasta | 83 | 1–12 months |
| Leftovers & Cooked Meals | 507 | 1–3 months · 5 with no freezer window |
| Sauces & Condiments | 145 | 1–12 months · 17 with no freezer window |
| Desserts & Sweets | 123 | 1–8 months · 10 with no freezer window |
| Beverages | 50 | 1–8 months · 5 with no freezer window |
Printing this page keeps the chart and drops the lookup. Use your browser’s print dialog.
The foods people look up most
- Avocado 8 months
- Bacon 1–2 months
- Bananas 2–3 months
- Bread 3 months
- Butter 6–9 months
- Cheesecake 2 months
- Chicken Breast 9–12 months
- Cooked Pasta 1–2 months
- Cooked Rice 2–3 months
- Cookie Dough 3 months
- Cream Cheese 2 months
- Eggs up to 12 months
- Ground Beef 3–4 months
- Heavy Cream 1–2 months
- Ice Cream 2 months
- Mashed Potatoes 2–3 months
- Milk 3 months
- Mushrooms 10–12 months
- Pesto 2–3 months
- Pizza 2 months
- Potatoes 10–12 months
- Ricotta 2–3 months
- Salmon 2–3 months
- Shredded Cheese 3–4 months
What people actually ask
Is food safe to eat after years in the freezer?
Yes, if it stayed frozen. Food held continuously at 0 °F (−18 °C) or colder does not spoil in a way freezing was ever meant to stop — the USDA says it remains safe indefinitely. What runs out is quality: texture, flavour and colour fade, and freezer burn dries the surface. A window is a best-by for eating, not a use-by for safety.
So why do the cards print a window at all?
Because "safe" and "worth eating" are different questions and only one of them has a clock. The window answers the second: it is the point where the food has usually lost enough texture and flavour that using it becomes a compromise. Past it, you are deciding for yourself rather than following advice — the food is generally still safe, and worth checking before you throw it away.
What does "Not recommended" mean on a card?
It means the freezer changes the food so much that freezing it is not worth doing — a cream sauce that splits, a salad vegetable that collapses. It is a quality verdict, not a safety warning, and it is the reason those foods are missing from the chart below. Freezing them is not dangerous; it just wastes the space.
Why does the same food show different windows in different charts?
Because the charts are answering different questions. Some publish a safety window, some a best-quality window, and some a home-freezer window; a raw steak can be listed anywhere between a few months and a year depending on which one you are reading. This site publishes one window per food, follows the more conservative end of the published range, and says on every card where the number comes from.
Sources
Every figure this tool computes with is published guidance, cited here rather than summarized from memory. Where the published guidance is silent — a per-pound thawing rate for a cut nobody publishes one for, or how long a nearly empty freezer really holds — the tool says so and you get a check instead of an invented number.
- CDC — Keep Food Safe After an Emergency 4 hours for a closed refrigerator, 48 hours for a full freezer, 24 hours half-full, and what may be refrozen
- FDA — Food and Water Safety During Power Outages the same outage windows, and the 40 °F ice-crystal test for refreezing
- USDA FSIS — The Big Thaw refrigerator, cold-water and microwave thawing, and cooking from frozen
- USDA FSIS — Turkey Basics: Safe Thawing 24 hours per 4–5 lb in the refrigerator; 30 minutes per pound in cold water
- USDA FSIS — Freezing and Food Safety 0 °F, quality windows, and refreezing after a refrigerator thaw
- USDA FoodKeeper App the storage windows behind every food page on this site