KeepsUntilSearch My fridgeShelf Stable Foods · USDA FoodKeeper

How long do Almonds last in the fridge?

2 kinds · each with its own window

Almonds, no shell · Unopened · in the fridge

Use by8 months

Counted from the day you bought it

Quality window · past it, judge it yourself

How this date is worked out

From KeepsUntilIt is past the dateWhat to do when the window has run out, and when tasting is not a test Where these numbers come fromThe USDA source, the parse rules and what this site cannot tell you Every food on the siteOne page, every product, longest first

Turning the range into a date

Almonds (no shell) keep 8 months sealed in the fridge. Each kind gets its own dated rows here, 6 rows across the 2 the USDA lists under this name, because a date is only worth printing against the window it belongs to.

Almonds, shell

In the freezerUse by20 months after the day you bought it
Unopened · in the pantryUse by6 months after the day you bought it
Unopened · in the fridgeUse by16 months after the day you bought it

Almonds, no shell

In the freezerUse by10 months after the day you bought it
Unopened · in the pantryUse by4 months after the day you bought it
Unopened · in the fridgeUse by8 months after the day you bought it

Almonds, no shell · In the freezer

10 months

Counted from the day you bought it

1.2×

Almonds, no shell · What the freezer buys you over the sealed fridge300 days frozen ÷ 240 days sealed in the fridge

The USDA rates 2 kinds of this separately

Almonds, shell keeps 6 months, which is shorter than the window this page answers with. The USDA files 2 separate entries under this name — shell and no shell — and they do not keep for the same time: Almonds, no shell holds 8 months outside the freezer, Almonds, shell holds 16 months.

The freezer helps less here than you would expect

The freezer buys less here than its reputation suggests: 1.2 times what the sealed fridge gives, 8 months against 10 months, both still measured in months. For this item freezing is an extension rather than a different way of keeping it. On the same shelf it sits 54 of 70, between Crackers at 8 months and Fruits, dried, raisins, apricots, mangoes, cranberries, etc. at 6 months. Almond, shell and no shell are the same food in the source list.

Every storage figure the USDA publishes for this item

All three places the USDA recognizes are rated here — pantry, refrigerator and freezer — which only 65 of the 466 foods in the data manage. The source also indexes it as shell and no shell.

Almonds, shell

In the freezer20 months
Unopened · in the pantry6 months
Unopened · in the fridge16 months

Almonds, no shell

In the freezer10 months
Unopened · in the pantry4 months
Unopened · in the fridge8 months

From KeepsUntilWhere these numbers come fromThe USDA source, the parse rules and what this site cannot tell you

Can you freeze almonds?

Yes. The USDA gives almonds (no shell) 10 months in the freezer from the day you buy them, and held at 0 °F food stays safe beyond that: the figure is about quality. Freeze it well wrapped while it is still well inside its fridge window: the freezer keeps quality, it does not restore it.

How to tell if almonds have gone bad

Go by the date first: almonds keep 8 months sealed in the fridge. A sour or off smell, mold, slime or an odd color mean it goes out. The bacteria that make people sick change none of these, so past its window it goes out even if it seems fine. Never taste to test.

Sources: USDA FSIS: the danger zone USDA FSIS: freezing and food safety USDA FSIS: molds on food FDA: are you storing food safely FoodSafety.gov: the FoodKeeper app.

Is it still safe to eat, or just past its best?

The answer at the top of this page reads 8 months in the fridge. What decides that is the food and not the shelf the source files it on: Almonds, no shell is acid, dry, sweet, alcoholic or pure fat. Past it, whether it has gone bad is yours to judge by look and smell: this window rates quality, not the day it turns hazardous.

It is past the date. Now what?

Say the calculator above puts Almonds, no shell past its 8 months in the fridge window. Past that the calendar stops deciding and the food itself does. A rancid, paint-like smell in a nut, an oil or a seed, mold around the neck of a bottle, or a swollen can mean it goes out whatever the date says.

The whole rule, including the cases the source does not cover, is set out under what to do when the date has passed.

Two places, and one of them is the wrong one

The USDA rates two places for Almonds, shell in one state and they disagree: 16 months in the fridge against 6 months in the pantry. Of the two, the refrigerator is the longer. Both figures are the USDA's own, so this is a choice of where to put the food rather than a disagreement about how long it keeps.

Items that behave the same way

The 6 items below are the closest match to Almonds, no shell by storage behavior, running 6 months to 9 months and bracketing its 8 months.

Where these numbers come from

Every storage time on this page is the USDA’s own published figure from the FoodKeeper data, one of the 9 it keeps per food, reproduced unchanged and never an estimate of ours. Where the USDA lists several kinds under one name, each kind keeps its own windows, and the page names the kind its answer is for. The dates and multipliers are ours, computed from those ranges.

Source: USDA FoodKeeper, retrieved 1 September 2026. Found a figure that does not match the source? Tell us on the contact page. How the site is built is on the method page.

Comparisons and the place in the category are computed for Almonds, no shell, which is the kind the plain name means here, chosen kind by kind rather than by the order the source happens to list them in.

USDA index terms: Almond, no shell, shell

KeepsUntil is an independent reference built on public USDA data. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the Food and Drug Administration. Whether a given window is a safety limit or a quality window is stated on the page that prints it.