cooked food should not stay more than 24 hours in the refrigerator

I believe there are certain dishes that can stay edible for more than 24hours, so long as its kept cool inside the fridge. But, yes, its best to consume them, asap. I'm just new at cooking, and sometimes I fail to estimate what is enough for 1 dining, so we often have leftovers, which doesn't get eaten even on the next meal. It's such a waste.

I love to cook and I have a life´s experience in cooking and leftovers. Not all dishes are equally in need of being consumed so quickly. And even if they are in the fridge, it is different if it´s Winter or Summer. I keep cooked rice for a week with no problem but will not let fish or sea food stay more than hours, except if they are cooked in vinegar.

I have leftovers and I will not eat the same thing two days in a rows. Either your refrigerator does not work, or you can spend most of the day cooking and also shopping, because if you cannot trust keeping a meal for a couple of days, that means that you cannot keep the vegetables and produce you buy for more then a day. Also do you have a freezer even a small one? Then if the meal is properly sealed, you can keep it in the freezer for up to a month.

Food doesn't need to be consumed within 24 hours of preparation. If that's your rule, I can only imagine how much perfectly good food you are wasting. The same is true in terms of the "sell by" dates on food packages. Those are not expiration dates and have absolutely no scientific basis. For instance, yogurt that has a sell by date of February may very well still be good in June. There are general guidelines regarding food safety--and a lot of sites that have lists of these guidelines. Just Googling "how long does [name of food] keep?" should yield plenty of answers quickly. I've done quite a bit of cooking, and I've learned to judge whether food should be kept or tossed. I've only once made a rather bad call, and that involved some restaurant leftovers that I didn't manage to keep at a cold enough temperature. I thought that the storage temperature had been lower than it was, and I realized later when I wasn't feeling well that I had misjudged. Once you've done a bit more cooking you will, hopefully, learn to trust your judgment about the safety of the food rather than cling to an arbitrary rule that results in so much food waste.

I'm not sure why , but it seems to me that some fridges work better than others, no matter what the temperature in it is. I remember when I was able to store food at the fridge at work or more than a day, my food was terrible. And the fridge temperature was low enough. At home I can store most foods for many days without problem, but of course I try to eat everything within a couple days. It's true it would be best and healthiest to always eat fresh food, or what is not older than a day.

I agree with you on this, I, myself is pretty strict when it comes to food staying inside the refrigerator for more than 24 hours. There are certain kinds of bacteria that builds up on cold storage area so it is not actually safe to let food stay for more than 24 hours. I think it is still a best practice to cook food which is just right or enough for the day's consumption.

I do try to eat the leftovers as well, although I do admit that sometimes they get pushed to the back of the refrigerator and overlooked for too long and end up spoiling. I will eat leftovers after a day or two of it being in the refrigerator ... there are some things that can be in the refrigerator for up to a week and still be alright to eat, although how long I will let something sit before eating it (or throwing it away) depends upon what it is, of course.

I do love cooking. Sometimes, there are leftovers. I just placed it in a tigh sealed container then put inside the refrigerator. Just like you, I want to consume this on the other day or two, at least. But sometimes, I tend to forgot and it will take about a week. Before reheating it, I still see whether it is good or not. There are still possibilities that it will become spoiled due to improper refrigeration. Just keep on checking if the food is spoiled or not even if it is still within 24hours after cooked.

refrigerator companies would not like to agree with you for sure..`.:)..after all refrigerator are made for the purpose of storing food... yes even i try to finish the food within a reasonable limit and try to cook fresh food everyday and stimulate my taste buds....:)