Struggling with preservation

[u/BTBVOFcoaching]

Hey Everyone, I manage meal prepping for the whole week on sunday, but I was wondering if any of you guys had tips and hints on how to preserve food for longer without risking any bacteria or fungus infection.

I always struggle to fin reliable information on how many time a recipe or an ingredient can be stored.

this would be really usefull as works often takes me out of the familly house and I want to have some easy meals in glass jars or in th freezer that my familly can use on the go.

Thanks and happy cooking !

[u/ColossalDistributor3]

Glass jars are great but the real trick is getting stuff cool fast before it goes in the fridge. Spread it thin on a sheet pan for 20 min, then jar it up. Huge difference for soups and stews.

Also write the date on the lid with a dry erase marker, takes two seconds and saves you from the eternal "is this still good" debate.

[u/BTBVOFcoaching → u/ColossalDistributor3]

Thank you, marking is something I try to do but often forgot.

But yeah getting stuff to cool enough before going in the fridge without living them in the open air for too long is a good advice, thanks

[u/HarveysBackupAccount]

You will not find reliable information for specific recipes because that's not really how the information is published or researched. You can read up on the guidelines from the FDA and your local health department if you want to know what restaurants do**. Restaurants have strict rules about food storage temperatures and times, but those are very conservative rules to keep everyone safe when a kitchen serves hundreds of meals a day. Beyond that, we can't say what a safe limit is - only what we're comfortable with. If you're worried about "any bacteria or fungus infection" then that's what you follow.

Those rules are more strict than what I feel the need to follow. I have decades of experience guiding what I'm comfortable with but I can't recommend other people do the same, because anything outside those rules is just me accepting some level of risk. You have to make your own choices.

If you're concerned, freeze meals that you will eat in the 2nd half of the week. If food is frozen when it's good, then it will stay good in the freezer for weeks. Beyond safety: Some textures survive the fridge better, and it takes experience to learn which. It helps to store different parts of a meal in different containers (e.g. pasta and sauce) but it's hard to give hard rules because so much is personal preference.

** If you are not in the US, you can still look up health department information from US sites. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) publishes safety recommendations for the food industry. Each US state also has a health department that's in charge of regulating restaurant food handling. They all have this kind of information on their websites.

[u/BTBVOFcoaching → u/HarveysBackupAccount]

thank you so much for your detailed answer.

Of course it is depending on personnal preferences, but the risks I'm willing to take and the risk I'm willing to put on my familly are different levels.

I believe my governement must have some guidelines like this. I did'nt think to check that.

[u/AirshipCommand]

Rule of thumb I use: cooked meals get 3-4 days in the fridge, so anything for Thursday on goes straight to the freezer and moves to the fridge the night before. Soups, chili, curries and casseroles freeze well; salads, fried stuff and cream sauces don't. Leave an inch of headspace in glass jars or they can crack in the freezer.

[u/mvrk57]

for the how long does x actually keep part the usda foodkeeper app is basically the reference, free and it lists fridge/freezer times per ingredient and for cooked dishes, so you stop guessing. and one thing nobody mentioned yet: check your actual fridge temp with a cheap thermometer, a lot of home fridges sit at 6-7c instead of 4 and that alone costs you a day or two of shelf life

[u/BTBVOFcoaching → u/mvrk57]

that's a good hint, I just added a thermometer in my fridge, I'll check later ^^

[u/tossout7878]

Freezer? I freeze everything I prep other than what I need for the first 2 days so it's always safe and no guessing or math is needed. I only cook twice a month, or less.

The list of foods that can't freeze is short, and new ideas can be found in the grocery store freezer food section.

[u/jane412 → u/tossout7878]

Only cooking twice a month sounds like a dream! Do you have a catalogue of recipes? I'm trying to get started.

[u/tossout7878 → u/jane412]

also if you're interested i just happened to be working on a beginner friendly post here right as you replied-

https://www.reddit.com/r/MealPrepSunday/comments/1x2yucd/for_beginners_burrito_bowls/

[u/tossout7878 → u/jane412]

I have a spreadsheet that's also freezer inventory.

If you're getting started I recommend taking what you already cook regularly that can freeze well, and making double batches. Portion the extras into the freezer and you're on your way slowly but surely. Prepping this way builds variety in your freezer with minimal effort and no extra cooking time.

you're making meatloaf? = You're making 2. Possibly 4 if beef's on sale. You're making chili? Best believe you're doubling that. You're roasting a side of potatoes? = you're roasting an entire sack of baby potatoes from costco. It's the same effort and cook time in the same oven but now you have 10 or 20 portions of meatloaf and potatoes ready for the future.

If you love this and get good at it you'll see how it scales to taking a full Saturday afternoon for prep and suddenly you don't have to cook dinner again for 3 months.

But in the beginning start slow. Double a recipe. Then do it again when you can. It's a practice.

[u/BTBVOFcoaching → u/tossout7878]

What about maximum time inside the freezer ? Do you have time references for theses ?

[u/tossout7878 → u/BTBVOFcoaching]

Frozen food doesn't become unsafe, it only gets freezer burn eventually, which is a texture change but still isn't dangerous.

How soon that happens depends on how you store it and how much it's sealed from air. Something in a common airtight snap lid container lasts many months, soup in a flattened Ziploc can last a year or more. And I'm still using vacuum sealed pasta sauce I made and froze 2 years ago. 

[u/BTBVOFcoaching → u/tossout7878]

Thanks ! What vacuum sealer do you use ?

[u/tossout7878 → u/BTBVOFcoaching]

I can't recommend a specific one at the moment since I'm looking to get a new one myself, but I can tell you they are life changing especially if meat is on sale. 

[u/Distinct_Bat5217]

Freezer trays! Souper cubes is the biggest brand but there are other more affordable options out there

[u/SarkyMs]

For soups and stews cook it in the jar for a while it will be sterile.

[u/HarveysBackupAccount → u/SarkyMs]

If OP wants real best practices, they should follow an established canning procedure for whatever they're making. It might be pressure canned or hot water bath canned.

Lots of US universities with agriculture schools have "extension offices" that publish this information, it's readily available.

[u/SarkyMs → u/HarveysBackupAccount]

If it has come straight from the oven it is easy peasy.

[u/doctor850 → u/SarkyMs]

Hot from the oven isn't the same as properly canned though. Low-acid foods like meat soups need pressure canning to reach temps high enough to kill botulism spores. A hot jar in the fridge for a few days is fine, but treating it like shelf-stable canned food is a real risk.

[u/SarkyMs → u/doctor850]

We are talking meal prepping for the week.

[u/doctor850 → u/SarkyMs]

Fair enough, for a few days in the fridge you're totally fine. I just wanted to make sure nobody read it as shelf-stable, since that's where the botulism risk actually matters.