A well-stocked freezer can make meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking easier. Do you know how long you can keep food in your freezer? These food storage guidelines will help keep your food fresh.

How Long Can You Keep Food in the Freezer?

Because freezers do stop the growth of bacteria, food will not “go bad” in the freezer. (Food must be frozen when it is still fresh, and stay frozen until you plan to use it for best quality.) But over time, it will start to lose quality. Proper packaging for the freezer (with Ziploc bags, butcher paper, or even a vacuum sealer) will help to preserve your food’s quality longer. Brush up on freezer basics here, and then use the guidelines below for optimum frozen food quality.

Keeping your freezer well organized will help you know where things are, how long they have been frozen, and what you are running low on. Check out these freezer organization suggestions from my friend Taylor at Home Storage Solutions 101 for some ideas on how you can keep your freezer organized.

Food Storage Guidelines for Your Freezer

Freezers can be a big asset, but not all foods will stay “fresh” in the freezer for the same amount of time. Follow the guidelines in the charts below to help keep your frozen food at its best quality.

Fruits & Vegetables

Not all fruits and vegetables freeze well. Apples, potatoes, lettuce, and summer squashes just don’t do well when you freeze and thaw them. Berries, citrus fruits, many other fruits, and most vegetables do freeze well, and are just as tasty when they are thawed as they were when they were fresh.

Dairy and eggs

Milk can be frozen, but it will sometimes appear to separate when it thaws. It won’t be great for drinking, but can be used for cooking. Whole eggs should not be frozen in their shells. After cracking the eggs, beat the whites and yellows together and freeze this way.

Meat & Seafood

Meats and some seafood will keep for extended periods in the freezer. After too long, meats can start to dry out and get freezer burned.

Bread & Baked Goods

The freezer is a great place to store breads and baked goods for shorter periods. We often bake extra zucchini bread in the summer, and freeze it to have “fresh” zucchini bread in the fall. The freezer is also a great place to stash extra pancakes or waffles for a quick, hot breakfast.

Leftovers

If you won’t use leftovers within 3 days, you should freeze them. Foods will only stay as “fresh” in the freezer as they were when you first froze them. If you know that you won’t be using up your leftovers, freeze them as soon as possible. Follow the guidelines below for different types of leftovers you might have in your refrigerator.

It’s time to excavate your freezer! What has been hiding in the back of the freezer for too long? Toss anything that has been frozen for over a year, or anything that has too many ice crystals or too much freezer burn to recognize it. Label everything with the contents and the date it was frozen, and make your freezer work for you!

My friend Taylor from Home Storage Solutions 101 has a free printable with freezer storage times, and a free printable freezer inventory chart. Download those today, and get your freezer into shape!

You can also check out more freezer storage information from the FoodKeeper food storage database, and this basic information from FoodSafety.gov.

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