About & Editorial Standards

What Shelf Life Check does

Shelf Life Check is an independent food storage reference and date-calculation tool. It is not operated, approved or endorsed by the USDA, FoodSafety.gov, the UK Food Standards Agency or Food Standards Scotland.

Sources and scope

Our curated US cards use the FoodSafety.gov Cold Food Storage Chart (last reviewed September 19, 2023). The separate full US FoodKeeper reference reproduces the USDA FoodKeeper v128 source data, modified September 6, 2018. UK guides use their own cited UK official sources; US durations are not republished as UK advice.

How our date calculations work

For numeric source intervals, the tool adds the stated days, weeks, calendar months or years to the date you provide. It cannot measure food temperature, confirm hygiene, detect spoilage or determine that an item is safe to eat. Freezer intervals mainly describe quality. Special instructions such as “Do not freeze” never become a numerical deadline.

Corrections and updates

Source guidance can change. We retain the version or last-review date where available and keep a separate methodology page. The large FoodKeeper archive remains outside public search indexing while its usefulness and currency are reviewed.

Important limitation

Never use a calculated period to override a product use-by date, a food recall or official advice about handling, storage and leftovers. When the storage history is uncertain, the tool cannot certify that food is safe.