Cooking a big pot on Sunday and eating from it for a week is the easy part. The question beginners ask next is what to do with the rest: can you freeze it, how fast does it need to cool, and how do you get it back out safely? The rules are short once you see them in order.
A freezer set to around -18°C puts bacteria on pause. It does not kill them, and it does not make old food fresh. Food goes in as safe or unsafe as it was before. That is why the UK Food Standards Agency says to freeze food up to the end of its use-by date, and to freeze leftovers and homemade dishes as soon as you can.
Because the cold pauses bacteria, the time limits you see on freezer guides are mostly about quality. Food that sits too long gets freezer burn: dry, tough patches where cold air has pulled moisture out. It is not pleasant, but it is a quality problem, not a safety one.
Cool it fast, freeze it flat and small, thaw it in the fridge, and reheat it once until it is steaming hot.
A huge, deep pot of stew can stay warm in the middle for hours, and warm food (between roughly 8°C and 63°C) is where bacteria grow. Splitting it into smaller, shallower containers lets the heat escape quickly. The FSA advice is to get cooked food into the fridge or freezer within one to two hours, and portioning also means you thaw only what you will eat.
The fridge is the safest place to thaw, because the food never warms into that growth range. Plan ahead: a single portion may be ready overnight, a big block can take much longer. Make sure the centre is fully thawed before reheating, because partly frozen food can heat unevenly. Once it is thawed, eat it within 24 hours.
Not everything is worth the effort. Cooked dishes that taste better fresh, such as crisp salads, can be kept in the fridge for a few days instead (see our guide on how long meal-prepped food lasts). Use the freezer for the second half of the batch, not as a way to save food that is already past its use-by date.
This guide is general food-safety information, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, older, have a weakened immune system or a medical condition, or you are cooking for babies or young children, follow the specific advice of your doctor, midwife or dietitian, because food-poisoning risk is higher for some people. When in doubt about a food, throw it out.