[morsch]

> if it's open, and longer then 7 days in the fridge you toss it

I hope you don't strictly follow that rule or you'll throw away loads of absolutely edible stuff. Pickles, ketchup, mustard, jams, ... Yoghurt is often still fine after a week. My thing of miso has been open for months.

[XorNot]

I mean yeah, you adjust for perishiability. The stuff you list is already preserved though is the thing ('cept mustard, though I did eventually discover that Hot English Mustard loses it's kick after 1.5 years after the jar is open).

Anything you'd normally consider to need to be refrigerated though starts from the "when did you open it" sort of consideration though - meat and vegetables both have about a 1 week timer on them in my experience (though you'll usually know by smell in advance). But "smells okay" isn't a chance I'm going to take unless I'm in a survival situation - and you need to buy groceries weekly anyway.

What helps a ton is having a cheap chest freezer though - they're much more efficient on power, and you can store a ton of stuff in there for ages and just defrost as you go.

[willcipriano]

I throw out food when it is bad, not based on some arbitrary timer.

[potatopatch]

I do too and I have an upset stomach sometimes.. I note and try to adjust, since I'm not going to throw out virtually everything I buy to be 100% safe at the cost of absurd food waste. The point of health inspectors, etc, is that we can't take all the same kind of risks in a high volume kitchen.

I don't understand why the idea that an average person gives themselves food poisoning often is rocket science here.

[willcipriano]

You may have a illness or disease if you frequently get stomach aches. That isn't typical, talk to your doctor.

[potatopatch]

Thanks, but that isn't really normalized to anything.. The average American should get food poisoning every 7 years (48 million a year) and I have an upset stomach I would associate with at least one food risk in the 12 hours prior more like yearly, but I rarely get flu level sick, even from a flu, certainly not in an average 7 year period.

I think most people simply haven't looked into food safety material enough to integrate a probability that they had a food related factor when they feel sick and therefore conclude that they have no food risks in their daily habits that would equate to a small risk of a major health incident in a centralized kitchen, etc.