Deli & Prepared Foods: How Long They Keep

Almost everything here lands on the same short clock: 3–4 days in the fridge for leftovers with meat, chicken salad, egg salad, casseroles, and soups. Food handled after it was cooked doesn’t get the longer window a raw ingredient does — that’s the pattern for the whole category. The exceptions are worth knowing: sealed deli meats run longer unopened than the same meat sliced at the counter, and the mayonnaise-bound salads mostly say the freezer isn’t recommended, because they break instead of freezing. Below is the deli case, the salad bar, and last night’s dinner as USDA’s FoodKeeper covers them — pre-packaged against store-sliced, commercial against homemade.