Hi,

Many a times, I cook Indian food and keep it in the fridge.

How many days should one eat the food from the fridge. 3 days, 5 or 1 week?

My advise to you is to prepare food everyday fresh cooked food and eat within 24 hours which will keep you healthy. after all, with pressure cooker and rice cookers and microven etc, how long does it take to make food hardly one or maximum 2 hours if you slow.

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The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
Mahatma Gandhi

One thing i noticed when you put prepared food inside fridge after one or two days test of food changed.

i.e. if you make Daal, subji, rice and put in fridge more that 2 or 3 days than original test is gone.

I know it is quite not possible specially both working person to prepare fresh food everyday......... what we can do??

just 2 cents from myside

Quote:

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Originally posted by gopalpai

My advise to you is to prepare food everyday fresh cooked food and eat within 24 hours which will keep you healthy. after all, with pressure cooker and rice cookers and microven etc, how long does it take to make food hardly one or maximum 2 hours if you slow.

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~ Morning rain

Your question can't be answered in few lines.
Broadly speaking below are some tips that I follow to make food last longer in fridge:
- I cool down the cooked food to room temperature before putting it into the fridge
- use glass containers for fridge and more so for freezer (I avoid plastic)
- potatoes don't taste good if they've been frozen
- all cooked stuff loses its flavour over time, so when re-heating sometimes I may've to add salt / spices
- Daal (especially Arhar) loses it flavour, so I try not to store it, unless there are enough spices in it
- when taking out for re-heating, if it is more than what I need, I take it out into another container for re-heating and then keep the original immediately
- I do not re-use a spoon to dig into the container that is /was in the fridge
- items last longer in fridge when they are not covered - I'm fine with my fridge smelling with garlic and ginger!

If it looks funny, smells funny or tastes funny, I throw it away.
However, if I've to test it, I over heat it - if liquid then boil it over. And then use my senses to test if the food is still okay to eat or not.

see this article below:



Before the refrigerator was invented people used to keep food cold in cellars or in underground caves lined with snow or ice (if they were around). Otherwise, food was preserved using other methods such as smoking, salting, pickling or drying. Most of these methods of food preservation have been around since the time of the Roman Empire.

The main function of the refrigerator is to keep fresh and perishable foods from spoiling as quickly due to the rapid growth of bacteria. This is attained when food is kept at a temperature that is lower than 40°F (4°C).

The normal temperature of a refrigerator is between 1°F - 5°F (34°C - 41°C). Anything lower than this and it would be too cold and cause the contents of the fridge to freeze, whilst anything higher would mean that bacteria would multiply quicker and food would get spoilt faster.

The coldest area of the fridge is at the top, just under the chill tray or the freezer section and the warmest area is at the bottom, in the crisper drawers where vegetables should be stored and on the inside of the fridge door

There are different types of bacteria that can contaminate food but not all lead to illness.

Spoilage bacteria result in the deterioration of the appearance, texture and smell of a food after a certain amount of time. This usually occurs in fruit and vegetables such as when an apple starts to get soft and bruised or a carrot dries out and becomes soft, limp and discoloured.

Looking at a piece of fruit or a vegetable that is deteriorating may not be very appealing and you would probably not want to eat that item of food either. However, if you did, you would not become ill.

On the other hand, if you ate food that had been contaminated with other types of bacteria, such as Salmonella, it would be a different matter.


Fill a sink with warm soapy water, remove all trays, drawers and racks from the inside of the refrigerator and wash them in the sink. Don't forget to also wash the inside of the refrigerator along the sides and bottom, with the warm soapy water too.

Once the drawers and trays have been dried, they can be repositioned along with the contents of the fridge.

Another thing, which I have tried, is to 'FREEZE' the food and it is good after weeks even. Being so away from Indian (food) stuff; I have to do it. Not sure how bad on health but I don't do it quite often. The freshly prepared 'PARANTHA' were cooled down and frozen. They tasted good even after 2 months. Milk cubes in ice tray have been tried successfuly to make tea after a span of upto 3 months. I think 'growth' of cells stops under favourable conditions. A Bio-Medical person can say more on it.

Have you heard about canned/ frozen food found on Himalayas left by previous groups few years back was found edible!

-Ben

PS- Just my own thoughts. Not promoting or suggesting frozen food.