Shelf Life of Prepped Food in the Fridge?

[nathan111]

Hi,

 

I'm curious if there is an industry wide standard for how long you can keep cooked food (soups, sauces, purees... ) in your refrigerators before you need to replace them. 

I've worked in two restaurants. The first was fine dining, the current is a gastro-pub. In the fine dining kitchen the golden rule was 4 days; meaning if you prepped a vegetable puree, for example, on Monday then you had better be making it again on Thursday (AT THE LATEST). Being caught putting out food that was older than this was legitimate grounds for losing your job. We would either use it in a staff meal or if that wasn't an option just toss it away. To this day I find a 4 day rule perfectly reasonable. 

However, in my current job I get told off regularly for being wasteful when I try to stick to this rule, I've even seen chefs serve food that was several weeks old. I understand different types of prepared foods have different shelf lives based on fat content, salt, acid.. and that a heavily reduced stock will last a bit longer than say a blanched green bean, but are there  generally agreed upon standards? 

 

Cheers.

[donk79]

We can barely agree on a standard in our house.  I'd be amazed if their were an industry standard.  Of course the USDA will give you this:

 

https://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/storagetimes.html

 

But who throws out unopened hotdogs (or imagines they need to be thrown out) after two weeks refrigerated?  They probably sit longer than that in the grocery store!

[pastrygirl]

Can you give examples of foods that were several weeks old and got served?  Many cheeses, mustard, pickles, olives, salami, eggs, sour cream, usually no problem.  Foods that are cooked sous vide and kept sealed (and refrigerated) are supposed to have an extended life, and things like duck confit are designed to keep.

 

But no, no generally agreed upon standards besides if it's bad, don't serve it, and if it will be bad tomorrow, serve it to staff   Much will depend on the temp of the fridge and if any contamination was introduced.  Take it as a reminder to pay attention to the product itself, not just an arbitrary number. 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

6 hours ago, nathan111 said:

Hi,

 

I'm curious if there is an industry wide standard for how long you can keep cooked food (soups, sauces, purees... ) in your refrigerators before you need to replace them. 

I've worked in two restaurants. The first was fine dining, the current is a gastro-pub. In the fine dining kitchen the golden rule was 4 days; meaning if you prepped a vegetable puree, for example, on Monday then you had better be making it again on Thursday (AT THE LATEST). Being caught putting out food that was older than this was legitimate grounds for losing your job. We would either use it in a staff meal or if that wasn't an option just toss it away. To this day I find a 4 day rule perfectly reasonable. 

However, in my current job I get told off regularly for being wasteful when I try to stick to this rule, I've even seen chefs serve food that was several weeks old. I understand different types of prepared foods have different shelf lives based on fat content, salt, acid.. and that a heavily reduced stock will last a bit longer than say a blanched green bean, but are there  generally agreed upon standards? 

 

Cheers.

 

Define cooked.  Do you mean vacuum sealed, pasteurized, chilled in an ice bath and immediately refrigerated in a measured to be cold refrigerator?

 

 

[nathan111]

15 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Define cooked.  Do you mean vacuum sealed, pasteurized, chilled in an ice bath and immediately refrigerated in a measured to be cold refrigerator?

 

 

 

Nope. I mean fresh foods cooked simply, cooled, labelled and stored in the fridge. ( vegetable purees, soups/stews, blanched vegetables, mise en place items) The people I currently work for maintain that as long as there are no visible signs of spoilage that any food is fair game. However, I've been under the impression that food becomes unfit to serve to a customer LONG before it tastes or smells spoiled.

 

To simplify my question how about we say that I've made a large batch of chicken soup on Monday morning, using ingredients all delivered that day. I cook the soup, chill it, label it, and store it in a fridge. If you were a customer and you knew what day said soup was made then at what point into the week would you refuse to pay money for it?

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, nathan111 said:

 

Nope. I mean fresh foods cooked simply, cooled, labelled and stored in the fridge. ( vegetable purees, soups/stews, blanched vegetables, mise en place items) The people I currently work for maintain that as long as there are no visible signs of spoilage that any food is fair game. However, I've been under the impression that food becomes unfit to serve to a customer LONG before it tastes or smells spoiled.

 

To simplify my question how about we say that I've made a large batch of chicken soup on Monday morning, using ingredients all delivered that day. I cook the soup, chill it, label it, and store it in a fridge. If you were a customer and you knew what day said soup was made then at what point into the week would you refuse to pay money for it?

By Friday.  But remember chicken soup is an almost perfect medium for growing nasties and I tend to lean on the very conservative side.

[kayb]

Since the weekends are when I tend to cook meals that have a significant portion of leftovers (midweek meals are usually more portioned to one-time service), my rule of thumb is seven days; if I cooked it Sunday, and haven't used it by the following Sunday, out it goes. Some exceptions are made for foods that are naturally spoilage-resistant because of the high acidity, etc., or smoked or cured meats. I try to avoid that eventuality by freezing entree-sized portions when I'm putting away leftovers.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

9 hours ago, nathan111 said:

 

Nope. I mean fresh foods cooked simply, cooled, labelled and stored in the fridge. ( vegetable purees, soups/stews, blanched vegetables, mise en place items) The people I currently work for maintain that as long as there are no visible signs of spoilage that any food is fair game. However, I've been under the impression that food becomes unfit to serve to a customer LONG before it tastes or smells spoiled.

 

To simplify my question how about we say that I've made a large batch of chicken soup on Monday morning, using ingredients all delivered that day. I cook the soup, chill it, label it, and store it in a fridge. If you were a customer and you knew what day said soup was made then at what point into the week would you refuse to pay money for it?

 

I'd let it go a few days, not a few weeks.

 

[liuzhou]

If I went to a restaurant purporting to be "fine dining"  or even a "gastro-pub" on a Friday and was served chicken soup or anything containing chicken stock that has been made the Monday before and merely refrigerated, I wouldn't be delighted. Even if I survived. 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Why not freeze chicken stock/soup, and then add noodles or potatoes on the reheat?

 

I remember growing lots of cultures on agar in biology labs. It reminds me a lot of a good chicken stock, although agar is made from seaweed. I wouldn't roll the dice with chicken soup, myself.

 

I do eat leftover foods, but four days is pushing it for me for most things. After that I don't want it from my own kitchen where I know exactly how it's been handled and stored.

 

From a restaurant, I want it prepared the same day and to order, if possible. I'm paying good money, not dumpster diving. 

 

Fortunately for me, when I come up with the cash, I have my choice of many restaurants right here in my neighborhood that cook delicious food up from fresh ingredients to order. I can understand making a soup to serve and reheat throughout the day, but after that, it needs to be frozen or ditched, in a professional setting, I'd think.

 

Okay, if we're in a post-apocalyptic setting, starving, all bets are off, but I'm still not going to knowingly pay good money for old leftovers. 

[Chris Ward]

The rule-of-thumb when I worked here (and I haven't worked in a restaurant professionally for five years now) was three days for anything containing seafood or dairy, five days for anything else. That said, the first place where I had a paid job the chef (it was a caterer, not a restaurant) would deliberately buy stuff that was on its expiry date from his suppliers as it was cheaper, then either do everything to move it immediately or cook it to give it a longer shelf life. For example, yoghurts on their expiry date would be mixed with sugar to, allegedly, give them another three days; eggs on expiry would be hard-boiled to give them another five days. It seemed pretty shady to me at the time, and does now, although I'm increasingly wary of manufacturers giving short expiry dates to move their products.

At home now I apply the 3/5 day rules to most things.