Life: How long to keep frozen foods

For some reason, my mother likes to keep foods in my freezer and forgets that it is there.

Summary

According to some online articles, toss anything more than a year old, toss anything cooked more than 6 months old, toss any cooked vegetables more than 3 months, and toss any processed meats more than 2 months. This is just a guideline for myself on not thinking twice about throwing away food. This does not mean that the food has not already spoiled within that time period.

Shorten the period of time if there is freezer burn. Discoloring is not a good sign. Bad smell is also not a good sign. Seems like some comments state that you could cut these parts off. I am not a food expert so I take the safe side and just toss it (with a lot of mental pains).

Also included a link on defrosting frozen meats.

Personal Experience (Anecdotally) [Updated 2024-07-24]

I have definitely ate things much past the recommended duration, so not sure how accurate the durations are. I am also skeptical because I have read many things about how companies "fidget" the "expired" dates. Of course, I understand there are liabilities and most of the dates are reasonable. Maybe the big question I have is "how bad is it really after the expiration date."

Like is it life threatening bad? Or is it just upset stomach bad? Or is it just it doesn't taste as good? Or is it just that they are not sure and they just want to have a date for liability reasons?

Reference

http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/storagetimes.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/20/freezing-meat_n_1367941.html
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/ResourcesForYou/HealthEducators/ucm109315.pdf

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniques/preparation/how-to-quickly-thaw-meat-00000000049864/