How Safe Is Old Fridge Food?

I made it back to the station starving after forgetting to eat breakfast or lunch before heading to work.

I was searching through my emergency stash of ramen and peanut butter in my office and remembered I had some frozen stuff in the freezer.

For some reason, those frozen items were no longer in the fridge.

I did find a tupperware I recognized as one of mine, so I looked inside. Jalapeno poppers that I had made MONTHS ago were sitting in there.

They were not moldy.

They did not smell foul.

I made these poppers MONTHS ago.

In fact, I had made them around Valentine's Day. I only remember because I made them specifically that weekend. I had bought them at Costco and so the box was huge and taking up too much space in the freezer. To save space, I made them all.

I dumped them in the trash bin without hesitation.

As you can see at the bottom of the trash, those poppers don't look that old.

If an unsuspecting fridge raider had found them, that could have been more than a case of instant karma. It could have been hospitalization.

Which begs the question, how safe is your fridge food? The leftovers, specifically.

The general rule in my house has always been four days was the maximum amount of time for leftovers to be kept. Anything past that was asking for trouble.

I don't write dates on tupperware, but I often do for frozen food.

I guess maybe, it's time I started on the fridge leftovers, too.