How long does food last?

White rice: A low-oil staple: with the oxygen removed it stores for decades. Brown rice is a different story (see below).

Dried beans & lentils: Very old beans stay safe but cook up tougher and drier; the years are a quality window, not a safety cliff.

White sugar or salt: Keeps almost forever kept dry. Do NOT add an oxygen absorber, which fuses sugar and salt into a brick.

Brown rice: Oil-limited. The bran oil goes rancid whatever the barrier, so the freezer, not mylar, buys the most time.

Nuts & seeds: High oil content is the limit; cold slows rancidity far more than any barrier does.

Coffee (whole bean): Freshness fades fast in air. For flavour, buy small and fresh; for a long hold, seal airtight and freeze.

Beef jerky (dried): Vacuum-sealing roughly triples the life of home or store jerky by pulling out the air it oxidises in.

Ground beef: Freezer burn is dehydration. Removing the air is the whole job, and it multiplies freezer life several times over.

Fatty fish (salmon): Oily fish has the shortest freezer window of the meats; vacuum-sealing is what makes it keepable.

Hard cheese (block): Vacuum figures assume the fridge; sealing a cut block slows the mould that ends an opened wedge.

Eggs (in shell): Fresh shell eggs keep best simply refrigerated; freezing works only out of the shell, beaten.

Wheat berries: Whole hard wheat is the classic long-term grain: sealed with oxygen absorbers it stores for decades, and you mill it fresh as you need flour.

Dried lentils: Like dried beans, lentils are a low-oil legume that stores for decades with the oxygen removed. Very old legumes cook up firm and need longer soaking.

Quinoa: Quinoa carries more natural oil than rice or wheat, so it will not reach the 25-plus-year window those low-oil grains can.

Cornmeal: Degerminated cornmeal keeps for years. Whole or stone-ground cornmeal holds its oil and turns rancid far sooner, so choose degerminated for long storage.

Instant potato flakes: Dehydrated potato flakes are low in oil and store for many years with oxygen absorbers, which is why they are a food-storage staple.

Dehydrated vegetables: Properly dried, low-moisture vegetables store for years sealed against oxygen. Freeze-dried versions keep longer still than air-dried.

Powdered eggs: Commercially spray-dried whole-egg powder stores for years sealed and cool. Home-dried egg keeps far less well and is harder to do safely.

Honey: Honey keeps essentially forever in a sealed jar. It will crystallise, which gentle warming reverses. Do not add oxygen absorbers: honey is already low-moisture and needs none.

Ground coffee: Ground coffee loses aroma within weeks of opening. Vacuum sealing slows staling, but whole beans always keep longer than pre-ground.

Peanut butter: Peanut butter is high in oil and eventually goes rancid. Commercial jars last months in the pantry; refrigerating after opening extends it, and natural styles are shorter.

Sunflower seeds: Shelled sunflower seeds are oil-rich and prone to rancidity. Cold storage roughly doubles their life, and the freezer wins for anything beyond a few months.

Pork chops: Vacuum sealing before freezing keeps air off the meat and prevents freezer burn, roughly doubling the quality window over loose freezer bags.

Shrimp: Raw shrimp is highly perishable fresh. Frozen and vacuum sealed it holds far longer, with much less freezer burn than an open bag.

Ground turkey: Ground poultry has a lot of surface area and spoils quickly fresh. Vacuum sealing before freezing gives the longest quality hold.

Milk: Milk freezes well for months, though it can separate; shake after thawing. The fridge window is roughly a week past the sell-by date when kept cold.

Yogurt: Yogurt keeps a week or two past its date if unopened and cold. It can be frozen, though the texture turns grainy and suits smoothies or cooking better after.