Reference
Glossary
Plain definitions of the terms the chapters use, from food safety, labels, shopping and planning, each linked to the chapter that explains it.
126 terms. Type in the box to filter, or pick a letter. Where a federal agency and an extension service use a word differently, the chapter that teaches it says so.
| Term | Meaning | Taught in |
|---|---|---|
| 2-hour rule | The federal limit on how long perishable food can be out of refrigeration: 2 hours in all, or 1 hour when the air is above 90 °F (32 °C). | How long food keeps |
| advisory statement | A voluntary label line such as "may contain peanuts" or "produced in a facility that also processes tree nuts"; FDA says such statements are not required by law. | The people at your table |
| appliance thermometer | A thermometer made to stay inside a refrigerator or freezer and show the air temperature there, unlike a food thermometer pushed into food. | Kitchen inventory |
| as purchased (AP) | The form and amount of a food as it is bought, before trimming, peeling or cooking. | How much to buy |
| average (of measured weeks) | The total of several weeks' amounts divided by the number of weeks; steadier than any one week. | Review and adjust |
| backup meal | One meal written on the plan without a day, made from long-keeping staples, for the night the plan fails. | The weekly plan |
| baseline | One ordinary week of meals, food spending and preventable food waste, recorded before anything changes, that later weeks are compared with. | Your starting week |
| batch cooking | Making multiple servings of a dish at once for future meals (Utah State's definition). | Prep and batch cooking |
| Best if Used By | A date phrase that, under federal guidance, marks best flavor or quality, not a purchase or safety date. | How long food keeps |
| bulk | A larger package, bulk bin or multi-buy deal that gives a lower unit price for buying more. | Shopping and budget |
| buy formula | Amount needed (people × portion × times served) divided by what one pound as purchased gives, rounded up. | How much to buy |
| closed dating | A production code, such as the numbers stamped on a can, used to track the product rather than for shoppers to read. | How long food keeps |
| components | Parts of meals (a protein, a vegetable, a grain) cooked once and combined differently through the week; Illinois Extension's "cook once, eat twice". | Prep and batch cooking |
| compost | The dark, crumbly material food scraps and yard waste become when they break down with air and moisture. | Leftovers and using it up |
| Contains statement | A line beside the ingredient list, such as "Contains wheat, milk", that names the major allergens in a packaged food; not every product has one. | The people at your table |
| convenience form | A food sold partly prepared, such as bagged greens, baby carrots, frozen chopped vegetables, canned beans or jarred sauce. | Shopping and budget |
| cook once, eat twice | Planning two meals from one dish by cooking extra and setting it aside before serving, to eat within 3 to 4 days or freeze. | The people at your table, The weekly plan, Leftovers and using it up |
| cost per serving | A package's price divided by the number of servings on its label; a planning figure, not a unit price. | Shopping and budget |
| crisper drawers | The closed drawers at the bottom of most refrigerators, often with a vent that sets the humidity: closed for vegetables that wilt, open for most fruit. | Kitchen inventory |
| cross-contact | When one food's proteins get into another food, usually in amounts too small to see; cooking does not remove the allergen (FARE). | The people at your table |
| cross-contamination | The spread of bacteria and other microbes from one food or surface to another; a different problem from allergen cross-contact. | The people at your table |
| cycle menu | A set of menus, often two to four weeks long, that repeats. | The weekly plan, Your kitchen system |
| danger zone | The temperature range from 40 °F to 140 °F (4 °C to 60 °C), where FSIS says bacteria grow most rapidly, doubling in as little as 20 minutes. | How long food keeps, Prep and batch cooking |
| Dietary Guidelines for Americans | The federal government's dietary guidance, issued by HHS and USDA every five years; the 2025-2030 edition, released in January 2026, is current. | Your meal list |
| division of responsibility | The Ellyn Satter Institute's feeding model: the adult chooses what food is offered, when and where; the child decides whether to eat and how much. | The people at your table |
| eat-by day | The day written on a leftover's label: day 3 and day 4 after first cooking, counting the cooking day as day 0 (our convention). | Leftovers and using it up |
| eat-down day | A meal or day set aside to eat the leftovers and odds and ends already in the fridge before buying more (ReFED's "Eat Down"). | Leftovers and using it up |
| eat-down meal | A meal planned around whatever is left in the refrigerator near the end of the plan week, rather than around a recipe. | The weekly plan |
| eat-first item | Food already in the kitchen that has to be eaten soon, written on the eat-first sheet with its eat-by day and the meal it is planned for. | The weekly plan |
| eat-first shelf | One labeled refrigerator shelf, or part of one, for leftovers and food that will not keep long, so it is seen and eaten in time (from EPA's "Eat First" sign). | Kitchen inventory |
| edible portion (EP) | What is left to eat from food as purchased after trimming, peeling, coring and cooking. | How much to buy |
| equivalent | In NMSU's chart, another form of the same ingredient (garlic powder for a clove), which changes the dish very little. | Leftovers and using it up |
| ethylene | A natural gas that ripening fruit gives off; it speeds ripening and can shorten the life of nearby vegetables. | How long food keeps |
| fall-back rule | The household's short written answer to what happens when a week's plan will not hold: the meals that stay, the backup, and the day to start again. | Review and adjust |
| first in, first out | Putting newly bought items behind the ones already there, so the older ones are used first. | Kitchen inventory, Your kitchen system |
| fluid ounce | A US unit of volume, 1/8 cup or about 29.57 mL. | How much to buy |
| food allergy | The immune system reacting to a protein in a food; diagnosed by a doctor or allergist, with no cure, so avoiding the food is the protection (FDA). | The people at your table |
| food budget | The amount a household chooses to spend on food in a week, set from its own spending first. | Shopping and budget |
| food depth | How thick the layer of food sits in a pan; keeping it the same when a recipe is scaled keeps the cooking similar. | How much to buy |
| food group | One of the six groups the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines name: protein foods, dairy, vegetables, fruits, healthy fats and whole grains. | Your meal list |
| food thermometer | A probe thermometer pushed into the thickest part of food to read its internal temperature; different from an appliance thermometer. | Prep and batch cooking |
| food-group check | This manual's observation of which food groups appear in each meal on the list, read across the list; not a rating of any meal or person. | Your meal list |
| FoodKeeper | The federal storage-time lookup tool and dataset developed by FSIS with Cornell University and the Food Marketing Institute; FoodSafety.gov frames its times around quality. | How long food keeps |
| Freeze-By | A date phrase that says when to freeze a product to keep its peak quality; not a purchase or safety date. | How long food keeps |
| freeze-by day | This manual's name for the last day of a food's refrigerator time, by which it is frozen if it will not be eaten. | How long food keeps |
| freezer burn | Grayish-brown, leathery patches where frozen food has dried out; FSIS calls it a quality issue, not a safety one. | Kitchen inventory, How long food keeps |
| freezer-cooking day | A longer prep session, about once a month, that cooks several dishes to freeze in meal-sized portions. | Your kitchen system |
| fridge clean-out | The weekly look through the refrigerator for food past its storage time, checked against labels and the storage card, not by taste. | Your kitchen system |
| greens and browns | In EPA's composting guide, the nitrogen-rich part of a pile (food scraps, coffee grounds, grass) and the carbon-rich part (dry leaves, twigs, plain paper and cardboard). | Leftovers and using it up |
| household sheet | This manual's record of who eats from the kitchen, the coming week day by day, and the household's kitchen rules, in three parts: people, week and rules. | The people at your table |
| household-size adjustment | USDA's change to the summed per-person costs for household size: add 20, 10 or 5 percent for one, two or three people, none for four, subtract 5 percent for five or six and 10 for seven or more. | Shopping and budget |
| ice bath | A sink or large bowl of ice and cold water that a container of hot food sits in to cool faster. | Prep and batch cooking |
| inedible parts | Parts of food a household would not normally eat, such as peels, shells, cores, pits and bones; EPA's challenge leaves them out of the measured waste. | Your starting week |
| inventory | A written list of the food on hand, by category, kept so a household knows what it has before it plans or shops. | Kitchen inventory |
| kitchen approximation | A rounded metric figure for a US measure, such as 240 mL for a cup, used for home cooking and marked as approximate by NIST. | How much to buy |
| kitchen binder | The set of record sheets kept through this manual, with setup, progress and notes, stored in the browser and exported as one file. | Your kitchen system |
| label check | This manual's routine of reading the full ingredient list and any Contains or advisory statement on products bought for someone with a food allergy, and recording what each says with the date, at every purchase. | The people at your table |
| leftover | Cooked food kept to eat at a later meal. | Leftovers and using it up |
| Listeria | Listeria monocytogenes, a pathogen that can grow at refrigerator temperatures, which is why ready-to-eat deli meats have short refrigerator times. | How long food keeps |
| main perishable | The ingredient in a meal that keeps the shortest time once it is in the kitchen; it sets the meal's place in the week. | Your meal list |
| major food allergen | One of the nine foods US labeling law names: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame (sesame since January 1, 2023). | The people at your table |
| market basket | In the USDA Food Plans, the weekly quantities of foods in purchasable form that a plan's cost is based on. | Shopping and budget |
| master list | A shopping list kept from week to week, with must-have items on it permanently, instead of a new list each time. | Kitchen inventory, Your kitchen system |
| master meal list | The set of meals a household already eats and would eat again, kept in one place with a few facts about each; also called a family-favorites list. | Your meal list |
| meal formula | A pattern of parts (a base, a protein, vegetables and a sauce or seasoning) that a household fills from what it has, with a second-night version. | Your meal list |
| meal plan | A list of meals matched to the days they will be eaten. | The people at your table |
| meals cooked as planned | The number of planned home meals that happened on their night, or within a day of it with the same food; swaps, dropped meals and planned nights out are noted separately. | Review and adjust |
| meals log | A one-line-a-day record of what dinner was: cooked, leftovers, out or ordered in, or skipped. | Your starting week |
| medical nutrition therapy | A personalized, nutrition-based treatment plan provided by a registered dietitian nutritionist (Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics). | The people at your table |
| Nutrition Facts label | The panel on a packaged food that gives its serving size, servings per container, calories and nutrients. | Your meal list |
| one-meal rule | The rules-sheet item for households with children: one family meal, with one or two foods each child usually eats, rather than separate meals. | The people at your table |
| open dating | A calendar date printed on a package for shoppers, set by the maker to show best quality. | How long food keeps |
| order of work | The fixed sequence this manual fills in a plan: the schedule, the eat-first items, the order of the days, meals, the carrying meals, then the list. | The weekly plan, Prep and batch cooking |
| ounce (weight) | The avoirdupois ounce, a unit of weight: 1/16 lb or about 28.35 g. | How much to buy |
| pan volume | How much a pan holds to the rim, measured by filling it with water on a scale. | How much to buy |
| pantry | Wherever a household keeps shelf-stable food: a closet, a cupboard or one shelf. | Kitchen inventory |
| pathogen | An organism that causes illness; FSIS says pathogens generally do not change a food's taste, smell or appearance. | How long food keeps |
| percent Daily Value | How much of a daily reference amount one serving gives (%DV); FDA's rule of thumb is 5 percent or less low and 20 percent or more high. | Your meal list |
| planned leftover | Food cooked on purpose in a larger amount so that part of it becomes a later meal within its keep time. | The weekly plan |
| planned week | A week the household ran from a written plan, measured the same way as the baseline so the two can be compared. | Review and adjust |
| planned-over | Another name, used by some extension pages, for a planned leftover. | The weekly plan, Leftovers and using it up |
| planning day | The fixed day and time each week when the household plans the meals and writes the shopping list, usually just before the shopping day. | Your kitchen system |
| portion | How much food a person chooses to eat at one time; it can be more or less than one serving. | Your meal list, How much to buy |
| prep | Any work done ahead so a later meal takes less time: washing and chopping, cooking parts of meals, cooking dishes in quantity or filling the freezer. | Prep and batch cooking |
| preventable food waste | Food bought to eat that spoiled, plus food that was prepared but not eaten and was thrown away (EPA's definition). | Your starting week |
| quality limit | A storage time after which a food is likely to be less good to eat but, under the stated conditions, not less safe; freezer and pantry times and most date labels. | How long food keeps |
| ready to cook | Trimmed and prepared, before cooking; the Food Buying Guide's term for food at that stage. | How much to buy |
| recipe trio | ReFED's name for three different meals made from one cooked food, such as roast chicken, then chicken tacos, then chicken salad. | The weekly plan |
| reference portion | This manual's starting amount per person per meal for working out what to buy, taken from the Dietary Guidelines' serving examples; not an intake target. | How much to buy |
| refreeze | To freeze again food that has thawed; FSIS says whether it can depends on how it was thawed. | Leftovers and using it up |
| registered dietitian | A credentialed nutrition professional (RD or RDN) who can plan meals for a medical condition; the person who settles whether a meal fits a medical diet. | The people at your table |
| rolling boil | A boil that keeps bubbling hard when stirred; FSIS's reheating target for soups, sauces and gravies. | Leftovers and using it up |
| rota | A list of shared jobs that pass from person to person on a fixed turn. | Your kitchen system |
| rotation | A cycle menu for dinners only, usually two to four weeks long, used as the draft for each week's plan. | Your kitchen system |
| safety limit | A storage time after which the agencies say to throw the food out, because pathogens may have grown even if nothing looks wrong; the refrigerator times on the federal charts. | How long food keeps |
| scaling factor | The number every ingredient amount is multiplied by: servings wanted divided by servings in the recipe. | How much to buy |
| Sell-By | A date phrase that tells the store how long to display a product; not a safety date. | How long food keeps |
| serving size | The amount on the Nutrition Facts label, based on what people typically eat or drink; FDA says it is not a recommendation. | Your meal list, How much to buy |
| shallow container | In this manual, a container filled no more than 2 inches (5 cm) deep with cooked food going into the fridge. | Prep and batch cooking |
| shared base | Our own method for households whose members eat differently: one part of the meal everyone eats, with the parts that differ cooked or served separately. | The people at your table |
| shared ingredient | An ingredient that appears in two or more meals on the meal list, so one purchase can serve more than one meal. | Your meal list |
| shelf-stable food | Food that can be stored at room temperature before it is opened, such as canned goods, rice, pasta, flour, oils and spices. | Kitchen inventory |
| shrinkflation | A cut in a package's net contents without a matching cut in price, which raises its unit price (NIST). | Shopping and budget |
| spoilage bacteria | Bacteria (with molds and yeasts) that make food taste, smell or look bad; they grow at refrigerator temperatures and are a quality problem. | How long food keeps |
| staples | The foods a household wants on hand every week because many meals start from them. | Kitchen inventory |
| store brand | A product sold under the store's own name, also called a private label. | Shopping and budget |
| substitution | A different ingredient, or a mix, used in place of the one a recipe calls for. | Leftovers and using it up |
| swap rule | This manual's rule that a meal can move to another day only if every perishable food in it is still within its keep time on the new day. | The weekly plan |
| tag | A short label on a meal (kind, effort, leftovers, freezing, main perishable, suits everyone) that the planning and shopping chapters sort and match by. | Your meal list |
| tare | To set a scale to zero with the container on it, so it reads only what is added. | How much to buy |
| thaw | To bring frozen food back above freezing, safely in the refrigerator, in cold water changed every 30 minutes, or in the microwave. | Prep and batch cooking, Leftovers and using it up |
| theme night | A fixed kind of meal on a fixed day of the week, such as tacos on Tuesday. | Your meal list, The weekly plan, Your kitchen system |
| Thrifty Food Plan | The lowest-cost of the four USDA Food Plans, last reevaluated in 2021; its June cost sets maximum SNAP allotments. | Shopping and budget |
| time available | The time a day allows for making a meal, from starting to cook to sitting down, as the person cooking that day judges it; not the time a recipe says it takes. | The people at your table |
| time budget | The time set aside for planning and the list, written next to the planning step and checked against the household's own timings. | Your kitchen system |
| time matching | This manual's own method of matching each day's meal to that day's time available: no cooking, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour or more. | The people at your table |
| top waste reason | The reason behind the largest share of a week's waste bag, by the household's own estimate. | Review and adjust |
| unit price | The cost per unit of measure of a product, such as per ounce, per pound, per 100 g or per liter: price ÷ quantity in one unit (NIST). | Shopping and budget |
| USDA Food Plans | Four USDA estimates (Thrifty, Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost, Liberal) of what a nutritious diet made at home costs, by age and sex, published monthly. | Shopping and budget |
| Use-By | A date phrase that, under federal guidance, marks the last date for peak quality, except on infant formula; in California, "USE by" on food made from July 1, 2026 marks a safety date. | How long food keeps |
| use-it-up meal | In this manual, any meal built from what is already in the kitchen: leftovers, odds and ends, the last of a bag. | Leftovers and using it up |
| vermicomposting | Composting food scraps in a bin with worms, such as red wrigglers. | Leftovers and using it up |
| Wasted Food Scale | EPA's ranking, in six tiers, of what to do with food that will not be eaten, from prevention to landfill and the drain; it replaced the Food Recovery Hierarchy. | Leftovers and using it up |
| weekly meal plan | A written list of the meals a household means to eat at home between one shopping trip and the next, with the day each falls on and the food it uses. | The weekly plan |
| weekly routine | The steps of the kitchen loop (thermometers, eat-first check, inventory, schedule, plan, list, shop, prep, midweek check, waste) run in the same order each week, each on a set day with a named person. | Your kitchen system |
| yield | How much edible food one unit of food as purchased gives, such as the cooked ounces from one pound of raw chicken. | How much to buy |