A family of four spends almost $3,000 a year on food that does not get eaten, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The same page says one-third of all food in the United States goes uneaten. Utah State University Extension published a short checklist on the subject that starts at the pantry shelf.
Kathleen Riggs, a family and consumer sciences faculty member, wrote the list for Utah State University Extension on April 13, 2018, under the title “Take Stock Before Restocking Food Storage.” It has seven tips, and the second one gives the pantry its best-known rule: first in, first out. The article is several years old, but pantry rotation does not change with the calendar, so the steps are laid out here in order.
1. Store Only High-Quality Foods
Riggs opens with a familiar saying about getting out of something what is put into it and applies it to the shelf. Bruised or over-ripe produce will not turn into firm, tender green beans or good apple pie filling once it is preserved, she wrote. The same goes for dry goods that are already old or unclean. Frenz Hub has a post titled 2026’s Most Clever Storage Hacks to Maximize Every Inch of Space.
2. Practice First In, First Out
Recently purchased items go behind the existing food, which helps ensure that older food is eaten before it spoils and before the expiration and best-if-used-by dates, according to the Utah State list. Bulk purchases are the catch, because not every item in a case is individually dated. Riggs suggests keeping a marker close by to add the date. CraftingYourHome.com has a post titled 9 Habits of People Who Always Have a Clean House.
Clemson University Cooperative Extension’s pantry factsheet gives the same advice: put new purchases behind older ones and write purchase dates on items that have no open date. The method is not limited to home kitchens. A Wikipedia entry on FIFO describes supermarket chains selling goods with earlier expiration dates before goods with later ones.
3. Check the Freezer
Many households have freezers full of packaged meat from raising livestock or hunting wild game, Riggs noted. To avoid freezer burn and tough meat, she wrote, those packages need dates and need to be rotated even more regularly than home-canned foods. The Food and Drug Administration says a freezer should sit at 0 degrees F. Frenz Hub has a post titled How to Freeze Fresh Green Beans to Enjoy All Year.
4. Store What Is Used, and Use What Is Stored
Extended family members often hand out food storage advice, Riggs wrote. Powdered milk or honey may be on every suggested list, but a family that prefers canned milk or granulated sugar should go with what it knows it will use. A household that does not cook with dried beans, her example goes, may be better off storing commercially canned beans. Frenz Hub has a post titled Best Practices for Seasonal Storage.
5. Skip the Debt, and Make a List Before Case Lot Sales
Supermarket ads for case lot sales can be exciting, and the stacked cases inside the store raise the excitement further, according to Riggs. Her advice is to make a list before leaving home, decide how much to spend and stick to it. If the plan is a half case of canned corn, she wrote, the plan holds even if a store employee has to divide a box. A list also helps decide what not to buy, and CraftingYourHome.com has a post titled 7 Things Smart Shoppers Never Buy at a Dollar Store.
6. Store Foods Appropriately
Riggs describes the disappointment of pulling a bag of rice off the shelf and finding it nibbled or infested with weevils. Pests feed on or breed in flours, cereals, grains, dried fruit, nuts, candy and other stored foods if they can reach them. Her fix is to move foods into air-tight containers, or divide them into smaller bags and keep those in the freezer, as soon as they come home.
The Clemson factsheet adds that cereals, flour, seeds, baking mixes, spices, candy and dried fruit belong in tightly sealed glass, metal or rigid plastic containers. It also says to keep food away from ovens, hot water pipes and heating ducts, since heat and moisture shorten storage time.
7. Keep Storage Areas Clean, Organized and Pest Free
A garage or storage shed takes extra planning, Riggs wrote. Insulated cabinets with doors may be needed, and grains should not sit in unsealed containers in the same space. She also points to food storage inventory sheets for tracking what comes in and goes out.
Clemson lists a cool, dry pantry at 65 to 70 degrees F for canned fruits, juices, tomatoes and pickles, which it puts at 12 to 18 months, and for canned meats and vegetables at 2 to 5 years.
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A Light Reality Check
The Utah State article was written in April 2018 with home gardeners and case lot shoppers in mind, so some of it, such as the home-canned tomatoes, will not apply to every kitchen. Not every household needs all seven steps, and a marker only helps if the date goes on the package. The common thread across the Utah State and Clemson pages is simple: know what is on the shelf, put the oldest in front and keep it sealed. The bigger picture is large, too, since the EPA says its 2030 goal aims to cut food waste by 50 percent, to 164 pounds per person.
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
