Most people have stood in front of the fridge holding something questionable, doing a quick mental cost-benefit analysis between food poisoning and not wanting to waste $4 worth of leftovers. Science has some guidance to help you with that.
Researchers writing in The Conversation have laid out a practical framework for figuring out what’s salvageable and what needs to go. The short version is that not everything sad-looking in your kitchen is actually dangerous—but some of it absolutely is, and there are four specific signs that mean you should stop deliberating and just throw it out.
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The 4 signs food has gone bad:
Visible mold
Slime
Leaking liquid
Strong or sour smells
Any one of those is a hard stop. Food sporting those characteristics can cause food poisoning, and no amount of creative cooking fixes that. Everything else—wrinkles, browning, dryness, general sadness—is usually just age, not danger, and there’s often something useful you can do with it.
Fruits
Brown bananas are fine. Black bananas are fine. Throw them in banana bread, pancakes, or a smoothie and move on. Just keep them away from your fresh fruit since older bananas release ethylene gas, which speeds up ripening in everything nearby. Wrinkly ples are good for baking or stewing. Dried-out citrus skin can still be zested. Mold on larger firm fruits can usually be cut off with a generous margin; mold on soft or small fruit like berries means the whole container goes.
Vegetables
Floppy, shriveled vegetables have lost moisture but aren’t spoiled. Roast them, mash them, drop them in a soup. Wilted leafy greens can usually be revived with a 30-minute cold water soak. Firm vegetables like carrots and potatoes can have damaged spots cut away, though green or sprouting potatoes not so much—those contain natural toxins that aren’t great in large quantities. The white fuzz on mushrooms is usually mycelium, part of the root system, not mold. Actual mushroom mold shows up in bright clusters of blue, green, gray, or yellow.
Grains
Moldy bread goes in the trash, always—mold travels fast through porous foods. Stale but mold-free bread can be toasted, turned into croutons, or blitzed into breadcrumbs. Leftover rice and pasta are fine for a couple of days, but they need to be stored promptly and reheated fully. Anything left sitting out for two hours or more gets tossed, because reheating doesn’t eliminate the bacteria that accumulate at room temperature.
Dairy
Milk and yogurt go straight from fridge to mouth without any cooking step to kill off anything unwanted, so if they’re past the use-by date, they go. Soft cheeses with any mold get thrown out entirely since mold roots can run deep. Hard cheeses like parmesan are more forgiving—cut off the moldy section with room to spare, and the rest is generally fine.

Time Out has released its annual — and fully subjective — list of the 20 best cities for food, naming Lima, Peru, as the global culinary cital this year.
But, perhs more importantly, New York City returned to the list at No. 15 after being conspicuously absent from last year’s rankings. Of course, the placement still seems woefully low given that NYC boasts more Michelin-starred restaurants than any US city, with cuisines spanning every corner of the globe from Togo to Tokyo.
To compile the countdown, Time Out surveyed more than 24,000 locals from around the globe, asking them to rate the caliber and affordability of their hometown food scene, along with the best grub spots.
Time Out’s panel of editors and food critics then selected their picks for the globe’s most exciting dining destinations, eventually whittling the pool down to 20.
This year’s a particularly ctivating time for urban gourmands, per the mag.
Locals are looking beyond small plates and sourdough, instead packing out neo-tavernas, selling out signature dishes from much-loved independent restaurants and lining up for the best pizza slice in town, said Time Out Travel Editor Grace Beard. That’s the beauty of the list: today’s culinary citals are primed for every palette, from the budget eater to the certified bon vivant.
Lima, Peru
The Peruvian cital sat atop this Mount Rushmore of metropolitan gastro-hubs. Time Out cited the city’s numerous culinary accolades, most notably fusion hotspot Maido, which previously snagged the title of World’s Best Restaurant for 2025.
Among locals, Lima scored 80% for quality and 85% for affordability — the cheest on the list for eating out. It also ranked joint-second, amassing 70% of the votes for Time Out’s expert panel.
Bangkok
Bangkok has always been a destination for epicurean pilgrims, but this veteran food scene has arguably never been hotter — and not just because of the atomically spicy chili peppers.
Time Out cited the Thai cital’s soaring recognition on the global cuisine scene — Southern Thai restaurant Sorn became the first in the nation to be awarded three Michelin stars.
They also saw younger chefs increasingly bringing local cuisine to the forefront via modern takes on obscure regional classics. To wit, Trok Maraga’s bitter melon chicken noodles and the explosion of Song Wat Road, where traditional dishes bump elbows with stylish contemporary concepts.
Meanwhile, Bangkok received a score of 81% for its quality and diversity, with many citing the city’s vibrant street food scene as the reason for its high spot on the gastronomic totem pole. The Timeout jury also gave the city a whopping 80% across the board.
Mexico City
Reflecting an uptick in global influences, Mexico City has also become a multicultural mix, where taco spots share real estate with bubble tea depots.
Perhs nowhere is this more evident than the infusion of Mediterranean, Asian and French cuisine into the neighborhoods of Condesa, Juárez and San Miguel. Some notable examples include Fabiola Ecobosa’s Italian concept Gia and the French Restaurant Étranger, which features Janese signatures like Kampachi.
Overall, 80% of locals rated the Mexican metro scene high for quality, while 73% gave it good marks for affordability.
London
The home of jellied eels in tins and pigeon pies placed fourth on the countdown, with Time Out citing Soho’s Osteria Vibrato’s creamy risotto, the Abruzzian skewers at London Fields’ Auguste and Tiella in Bethnal Green, a hipster trattoria with perfect passatelli in brodo and a giant portrait of Cher.
A staggering 96% of Londoners dubbed the UK’s dining scene either good or amazing, although no word as to whether that reflected more city pride or quality.
New York City
New York City placed 15th despite its culinary credentials, like Food & Wine’s Best Restaurant in the Country, Caribbean hotspot Kawaba, or Executive Chef Hillary Sterling’s Italian hub Ci Siamo, which was named the Best Restaurant in the Country by the notoriously West Coast-centric Yelp.
The ranking seemed perplexing given that 91% of respondents dubbed it a good or amazing dining out destination.
Meanwhile, 77% of locals described NYC as the most diverse food hub, a criterion that seemed to be rewarded more elsewhere in the rankings.
NYC’s biggest weakness was affordability, with just 34% of NYers dubbing it a che place to eat — a factor that weighed quite heavily.
This isn’t the first time a list has thrust the Big ple to the back burner.
Post food critic Steve Cuozzo lambasted German car service provider SIXT for ranking NYC only the seventh-best food city in the world, behind Tokyo, Paris, Osaka, Porto, London and Seoul.
Can we really be a lesser food town than Porto? he spluttered about Portugal’s second-largest city.
Here are the 10 best cities in the world for food

Whole Foods Market is bringing its gouda and berry chantilly cake back to Encinitas.
Jones Lang LaSalle, which handles leasing for the Encinitas Marketplace shopping center at North El Camino Real and Via Molena, announced Whole Foods Market’s arrival in a brochure.
The store’s opening is part of a $10 million facelift that will transform the center’s look over the next 24 months, according to LJJ. Whole Foods Market, in the space emptied by Kohl’s last year, will anchor the 124,411-square-foot shopping center. It has five other retail openings: a 22,200-square-foot space and four smaller ones. The mall recently added a Verizon store.
This is one of three Whole Foods Markets planned for San Diego County. Stores are also heading to Carmel Mountain Ranch and downtown. While the Carmel Mountain store was recently announced, the downtown store has been in the works since 2024 and there are no updates on that location, a Whole Foods Market representative said in an email last month.
San Diego is getting a new Whole Foods Market
The Encinitas center, which opened in 1981, was sold in 2019 for $43 million, according to CoStar.
Encinitas had a Whole Foods Market for several years. It opened in 2011 but shut down in 2017. That store, in a mixed use development on South Coast Hwy 101, faced lagging sales and was one of nine to close nationwide as the chain — months shy of its acquisition by Amazon — faced new competition from Walmart and other conventional grocers.
Whole Foods struggles: Encinitas location to close
With this Whole Foods, the mall returns to its roots: grocery.
Staff writer Jennifer Van Grove contributed to this report.

Today at EPCOT, we spotted a photoshoot hpening, not for a celebrity but for an ear headband. The headband has a chef’s hat with grhics of food items, leading us to believe they are cturing promotional merchandise photos and video for EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival 2026.
Near Spaceship Earth at EPCOT, a group of Disney Cast Members was seen taking photos and video of the headband against the backdrop of the park’s iconic geodesic sphere.
A close-up of the ear headband shows a chef’s hat in the center with cartoon artwork of food items. Donald can also be seen on one of the ears.
This was the headband for Food & Wine Festival 2025, which was part of the Chef Mickey Mouse Collection. It features the art of Donald on an empanada and Mickey riding a scooter across spaghetti on the ears, with a contrasting maroon headband and pink bow.
The 2026 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival at Walt Disney World runs from August 27 through November 21, 2026
See our full guide for the 2025 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival.

Costco reduced the prices of several items during the third quarter of fiscal year 2026, which ended in late May.
It’s the third time in a row that Costco has announced price drops during a quarterly earnings call.
In December 2025, the brand shared that it had lowered prices on items like chicken pot pie, bacon and whipped cream. In March, Costco lowered prices on food items like butter and coconut water.
Our goal is to be the first to lower prices where we see opportunities to do so, Gary Millerchip, Costco’s chief financial officer, said in the most recent earnings call.
Here’s which Kirkland Signature food products just got cheer.
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Costco lowered prices on these items
These Kirkland Signature products got cheer, according to the company’s most recent earnings call:
Crispy Wings: dropped from $16.99 to $14.49
Milk Chocolate Almonds: dropped from $19.99 to $18.99
Golf Ball: dropped from $32.99 to $29.99
Sheets (King): dropped from $89.99 to $79.99
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