Moving Tips: Packing & Moving Food

You’re packing & moving! Now is a good time to check the expiration date on food you have stored. You might be amazed at what has already expired in your refrigerator and cupboards.
Moving Tip: Here are some guidelines to help you check those dates and throw out those items that are past their shelf life.

• Coffee, canned ground – Unopened: 2 years — Opened 1 month refrigerated.
• Coffee, gourmet — Beans: 3 weeks in paper bag, longer in vacuum-seal bag (after this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume) — Ground: 1 week in sealed container
• Diet soda (and soft drinks in plastic bottles) — Unopened: 3 months from purchase by date on packaging.
• Soda, regular — Unopened: In cans or glass bottles, 9 months from purchase by date on packaging.
• Dried pasta — 12 months
• Frozen dinners — Unopened: 12 to 18 months
• Frozen vegetables — Unopened: 18 to 24 months — Opened: 1 month
• Juice, bottled (apple or cranberry) – Unopened: 8 months from production date — Opened: 7 to 10 days
• Ketchup — Unopened: 1 year (after this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume) –
• Opened or used: 4 to 6 months (after this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume)
• Maple syrup, real or imitation — 1 year
• Maraschino cherries — Unopened: 3 to 4 years — Opened: 2 weeks at room temperature; 6 months refrigerated
• Mayonnaise — Unopened: Indefinitely — Opened: 2 to 3 months from purchase by date on packaging (after this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume)
• Mustard — 2 years (after this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume)
• Olives, jarred (green with pimento) — Unopened: 3 years — Opened: 3 months
• Olive oil — 2 years from manufacture date (after this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume)
• Peanuts — Unopened: 1 to 2 years unless frozen or refrigerated — Opened: 1 to 2 weeks in airtight container
• Peanut butter, natural — 9 months
• Peanut butter, processed (Jif) — Unopened: 2 years — Opened: 6 months; refrigerate after 3 months
• Pickles — Unopened: 18 months — Opened: No conclusive data. Discard if slippery or excessively soft.
• Protein bars (Power Bars) — Unopened: 10 to 12 months. Check “best buy” date on the package.
• Rice, white — 2 years from date on box or date of purchase
• Salad dressing, bottled — Unopened: 12 months after purchase by date on packaging — Opened: 9 months refrigerated
• Steak sauce — 33 months (after this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume)
• Tabasco — 5 years, stored in a cool, dry place
• Tea bags (Lipton)  — Use within 2 years of opening the package
• Tuna, canned — Unopened: 1 year from purchase date — Opened: 3 to 4 days, not stored in can
• Soy sauce, bottled — Unopened: 2 years — Opened: 3 months (after this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume)
• Vinegar — 42 months
• Worcestershire sauce — Unopened: 5 to 10 years (after this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume) — -Opened: 2 years

• Beer – unopened: 4 months

Read more moving tips, Packing your kitchen for moving, How to pack wine for moving, andPackaging & moving perishables.