Not everyone is lucky enought to have a significant other around the house to take care of these things so Here is a list of tips and tests to keep the kitchen safe.

Biscuit

THE GAG TEST: Anything that makes you gag is spoiled (except for leftovers from what you cooked for yourself last night).

EGGS: When something starts pecking its way out of the shell, the egg is probably past its prime.

DAIRY PRODUCTS: Milk is spoiled when it starts to look like yoghurt. Yoghurt is spoiled when it starts to look like cottage cheese. Cottage cheese is spoiled when it starts to look like regular cheese. Regular cheese is nothing but spoiled milk anyway and can't get any more spoiled than it is already. Cheddar cheese is spoiled when you think it is blue cheese but you realize you've never purchased that kind.

MAYONNAISE: If it makes you violently ill after you eat it, the mayonnaise is spoiled.

FROZEN FOODS: Frozen foods that have become an integral part of the defrosting problem in your freezer compartment will probably be spoiled - (or wrecked anyway) by the time you pry them out with a kitchen knife.

EXPIRATION DATES: This is NOT a marketing ploy to encourage you to throw away perfectly good food so that you'll spend more on groceries. Perhaps you'd benefit by having a calendar in your kitchen.

MEAT: If opening the refrigerator door causes stray animals from a three- block radius to congregate outside your house, the meat is spoiled.

BREAD: Sesame seeds and Poppy seeds are the only officially acceptable "spots" that should be seen on the surface of any loaf of bread. Fuzzy and hairy looking white or green growth areas are a good indication that your bread has turned into a pharmaceutical laboratory experiment.

FLOUR: Flour is spoiled when it wiggles.

SALT: It never spoils.

LETTUCE: Bibb lettuce is spoiled when you can't get it off the bottom of the vegetable crisper without Comet. Romaine lettuce is spoiled when it turns liquid.

CANNED GOODS: Any canned goods that have become the size or shape of a softball should be disposed of. Carefully.

CARROTS: A carrot that you can tie a clove hitch in is not fresh.

RAISINS: Raisins should not be harder than your teeth.

POTATOES: Fresh potatoes do not have roots, branches, or dense, leafy undergrowth.

CHIP DIP: If you can take it out of its container and bounce it on the floor, it has gone bad.

EMPTY CONTAINERS: Putting empty containers back into the refrigerator is an old trick, but it only works if you live with someone or have a maid.

UNMARKED ITEMS: You know it is well beyond prime when you're tempted to discard the Tupperware along with the food. Generally speaking, Tupperware containers should not burp when you open them.

GENERAL RULE OF THUMB: Most food cannot be kept longer than the average life span of a hamster. Keep a hamster in or nearby your refrigerator to gauge this.

my question is how many of these were tips from a friend and how many were "personal experience"?...good tips though..you forgot if your o.j. tastes like you already added vodka to it.....well, you could go either way on that one......

1. And apple juice starts to grow green and white spots time to toss unless your in prison. ( to much prison TV shows)
2. Now if you have a water cup you keep water in wash it out from time to time, if a fish will live a year off the mold alone with out a feeding toss it and get a new one if your that lazy. ( Old room mate)
3. If you have an old box of Arm 'n Hammer baking powder in the fridge and it has gotten as hard as the concrete in the sidewalk, and is starting to grow it's own ecosystem. Time to toss it and get a new one.
4. If the strawberries start turning green and grow hair time to throw them out.
5. You have brown bananas toss them in the freezer until you make banana bread, but if you can't then look online or toss them out.

Just a few more to add to the list I could think of off the top of my head.

In between marriages my room mate and I used to keep beer,vodka and some food in the fridge our saying was ( If is brown its Meat if its Green don't eat )

The joys of being a bachelor