Alston Moor Foodbank Tel: 01434 647247

Use by, and best before

These two look alike and mean completely different things.

Use by — safety

Don’t eat food after its use-by date, even if it looks and smells perfectly fine.

You can freeze it right up to the end of that day, though — then it keeps.

Best before — quality

Food is usually fine after a best-before date. It might just not be at its best.

Trust your eyes and your nose.

Putting the shopping away

  • Chilled and frozen things first, everything else after.
  • Raw meat and fish go on the bottom shelf of the fridge, in a bowl or a box so nothing can drip onto what’s underneath.
  • Anything that needs a fridge shouldn’t sit out on the side for hours.

Your fridge and freezer

Your fridge should be between 0 and 5°C. Your freezer should be around −18°C.

Fridge dials are often wrong. A fridge thermometer costs very little and tells you the truth.

If the power goes off

Keep the doors shut. Every look costs you.

  • A closed fridge stays cold enough for about four hours.
  • A full freezer stays frozen for about 48 hours. A half-empty one, about 24 hours.
  • If the fridge has been at 8°C or warmer for more than four hours, throw out the chilled things — meat, fish, and anything ready-made and chilled.
  • If it’s colder than 8°C outside, food can go outside in a sealed box.
  • Eat the fridge food first, then anything that’s thawed, then the cupboard.

Defrosting

  • In the fridge, not on the worktop.
  • Use it within 24 hours of it being fully defrosted.
  • Once raw food has thawed, don’t put it back in the freezer raw. Cook it first — then you can freeze the cooked dish. After that, you can only reheat it once.

Cooking it through

Steaming hot all the way through is the rule. (70°C for two minutes, if you have a thermometer.)

  • Chicken, pork, mince, burgers and sausages: no pink left, juices running clear.
  • A whole piece of beef or lamb can be pink in the middle — the bacteria are on the outside, and browning the outside deals with them.

Leftovers

  • Let cooked food cool at room temperature, then get it into the fridge within one to two hours.
  • Eat it within two days, or freeze it.
  • Reheat once only, and until it’s steaming hot right through.

Rice has its own rules

Cooked rice is the one that catches people out, and it’s worth knowing why: the bacteria on rice survive cooking, and they multiply while it sits about cooling.

  • Cool it as fast as you can — ideally within an hour.
  • Keep it in the fridge for no more than one day.
  • Reheat until steaming hot all the way through.
  • Never reheat rice more than once.

Tins and jars

  • A shallow dent is nothing to worry about.
  • Throw away a tin that’s deeply dented, rusty, swollen or leaking.
  • A jar lid should be sucked down flat. If the button in the middle is already up, don’t use it.
  • Once a tin is open, tip what’s left into a covered dish and put it in the fridge. Don’t keep it in the tin.

Keeping things apart

  • Use a different board and knife for raw meat — or do the raw meat last and wash up in between.
  • Wash your hands with soap for twenty seconds before you cook, and after touching raw meat.
  • Don’t wash raw chicken. It doesn’t clean it, it just splashes bacteria round your kitchen.

Allergies and intolerances

Everything we deliver comes in its own packaging with the label still on it, so the allergy information is always there to read.

Fourteen things have to be shown on a UK label, printed in bold in the ingredients list: celery, cereals containing gluten (wheat, rye, barley, oats), crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, sulphur dioxide and sulphites, and tree nuts.

  • “May contain” means there’s a chance it’s been in contact with something. There’s no law behind that wording, but take it seriously.
  • Cooking does not get rid of an allergen. Heat doesn’t help.
  • If someone in your household has an allergy, tell us when you order and we’ll shop around it.

If you’re more at risk

Pregnancy, children under five, anyone over 65, and anyone whose immune system is weakened — all worth being a bit more careful. Particularly with unpasteurised milk and cheese, soft cheeses, pâté and raw shellfish.

Raw or runny eggs are fine for everyone, including these groups, as long as they carry the British Lion stamp or come from the Laid in Britain scheme.

If you think food has made you ill

  • Rest, and drink plenty of fluids.
  • Ring NHS 111 if it’s severe, if there’s blood, or if the person is very young, elderly, pregnant or already unwell.
  • If you think it came from a shop or a business, Westmorland and Furness Council’s environmental health team can look into it.

The advice on this page follows the Food Standards Agency and the NHS. We are not dietitians and we do not give medical or dietary advice — if you have a condition that affects what you can eat, your GP or a dietitian is the right person to ask. We do not store, handle or prepare food.

Take it with you

There is a one-page version of all this that you can print and stick inside a cupboard door — the dates, the temperatures and the rice rule on a single sheet.

Get the printable card

Now for the cooking

Tell Beryl what is in your cupboard and she will build you a meal from it, or browse the Recipe Bank for cheap, quick and delicious ideas.

Build a Meal with Beryl