How to keep track of what's in your freezer

What to write on a freezer inventory list

The name, the amount, the date it went in and the date to use it by, one line per package. The National Center for Home Food Preservation gives a slightly longer list for the label itself: the name of the food, any added ingredients, the packaging date, the number of servings or the amount, and the form it's in (sliced, ground, whole). It recommends freezer tape, or pens and labels made especially for freezer use.

The use-by date is the line that makes the list useful. A freeze date tells you how old something is, and you still have to work out whether that's old. Work it out once, on the day you freeze it, from the storage times further down, and write the answer on the bag and the list.

Where a time is a range, the dates above take the short end, which the NCHFP recommends for the best quality. Write the amount the way you'll use it. “4 servings” helps more than “1 container” on a Tuesday night, and “2 × 1 lb” means you can thaw one pound and leave the other.

Store packaging needs one extra step if it's staying a while. The FDA's storage chart says to overwrap meat and poultry left in its original package for longer than 2 months, with heavy-duty foil, plastic wrap or freezer paper, or to put the package inside a plastic bag. Write the date on the overwrap, since you won't be able to read the label underneath.

Paper list, whiteboard or app?

Whichever one you'll update while you're holding a frozen bag. Whatever the format, the list has to be in reach at the moment food goes in or comes out.

If you live alone and shop for yourself, a sheet on the door is enough. Once two people put food in the freezer, a paper list goes stale fast, because the person who froze the soup isn't the one standing at the door with the pen. That's when a shared app earns its place. Our list of pantry inventory apps compares six, from barcode-first trackers to ones tied to recipes and a shopping list.

How to keep a freezer inventory up to date

Update it as you go, while the food is still in your hand. A list saved up for a weekend catch-up is already wrong by Wednesday. The NCHFP's advice on freezer storage is to label each package with the food and the date, then actively manage the inventory, putting the newest food at the bottom or back and moving older food to the front or top.

• Label the bag and add its line before it goes in.
• Cross a line off when the food comes out, or change the amount if you took half.
• Before you plan the week, read the use-by column and put the closest dates on the menu.
• Once a month, check the list against the freezer and fix whatever's wrong. If you've kept up, that's five minutes.

Rotation keeps the oldest food where your hand goes first. A bag of stock frozen in August and buried under November's is easy to miss, list or no list.

Freezer zones and bins that make the list easier

Give each kind of food its own place and use the same groups on the list. Raw meat and fish in one bin, cooked meals in another, vegetables and fruit, then bread and baking. When the list says “Bottom bin” and the bin holds only raw meat, you can find the chicken thighs without unpacking the freezer.

• In a chest freezer, use bins or baskets you can lift out. Without them, the bottom layer is hard to see and harder to reach.
• In an upright or fridge-top freezer, give each shelf a group and keep the door for small things that get used often.
• Freeze soups, stock and sauces flat in bags. Once they're solid, stand them up in a bin like files, so you can read every label without moving the rest.
• Keep a small bin for anything that needs using soon. That's where you look first.

Keep the freezer at 0°F (−18°C) or colder, which the NCHFP gives as the temperature for freezing and storing food. An inexpensive appliance thermometer on a shelf tells you whether it's holding there.

How long does food keep in the freezer?

Indefinitely, as far as safety goes. The USDA says food kept at a constant 0°F (−18°C) stays safe, and the FDA's chart says its freezer times are for quality only. Past them, food dries out and picks up off-flavors. These are the times to base your use-by dates on.

For the best quality, use the shorter time where there's a range. Pumpkin pie is on the list, but freezing it costs the filling its texture. Pie dough freezes far better, as our post on freezing pie crust explains. The pie row comes from FoodSafety.gov's cold storage chart.

Keeping a freezer inventory in Hedgehog Chef

Hedgehog Chef's pantry sorts food into five places (Pantry, Fridge, Freezer, Spice rack and Other), and each item takes an amount (“2 lb”, “half a bag”), an expiry date and a note. Use the expiry date as the use-by date and the note for the freeze date or the bin. The pantry works in the web app today, in the browser on a phone or a computer.

• Paste the list you already have, one item per line. A line that says “Freezer:” puts everything under it in the freezer. A scanned barcode from a frozen product lands there too, and frozen items checked off the shopping list can move straight in.
• “Use it up” shows what's about to pass its date, with recipes that use it. With reminders on, you hear about it 2 days before.
• When a recipe on tomorrow's meal plan needs something that's in your freezer, the evening reminder tells you to move it to the fridge.
• The pantry prints grouped by location, so the freezer gets its own section for the door.
• On the Family plan, two people use the same pantry with their own logins, and the soup one of you froze shows up for the other.

It doesn't do everything a dedicated freezer tracker might. There's no separate freeze-date field, so the freeze date goes in the note. The freezer is one section, with no shelves or bins inside it, so a garage chest freezer shares it with the one in the kitchen and the note says which. It doesn't fill in expiry dates for you, either: use the table above.