LETTUCE · IN THE FRIDGE
7–14 days
A week is the plan; two is the good case. UC Davis measures romaine at about twenty-one days near 0°C but only about fourteen at 5°C — and that figure assumes no ethylene in the air. A home refrigerator is warmer than the test and usually has fruit in it, so seven to fourteen days is the honest range.
Whole heads outlast cut leaves by a wide margin. Every cut surface is a new place to start going.
These are quality windows drawn from published UC Davis storage research — an estimate of how long produce stays good, not a safety date. If the package carries a printed use-by date, that date governs.
ALSO SOLD AS romaine · leaf lettuce · iceberg · butter lettuce · head lettuce · green leaf · red leaf
Near the end of the window?
Limp lettuce is usually rehydratable — cold water for half an hour restores a surprising amount of structure. Lettuce does not freeze in any useful way, so if it is past the point of reviving, it is past the point.
SOURCES
- UC Davis: romaine ~21 d near 0°C, ~14 d at 5°C (no ethylene); warmer home fridge + ethylene exposure cut to a conservative 7-14 d. Retail haircut 2 d.
- UC Davis Postharvest Technology Center, Fresh Produce Storage & Shelf-Life recommendations (postharvest.ucdavis.edu).
Ranges are as published. Treat the short end as your real window — grocery produce is already days past harvest, and a cooked dish starts its clock at the stove.
Looking up your groceries one at a time is a hobby. A bad one.
Savery scans your grocery receipt and tracks these windows for everything you bought at once. The spinach, the strawberries, the milk you forgot about — all on one shelf.