How long do Berries last?
- Blackberries, boysenberries, currant3 days to 6 days
- Cherries, goose berries, lychee7 days
Turning the range into a date
Each kind gets its own dated rows here, 4 rows across the 2 the USDA lists under this name, because a date is only worth printing against the window it belongs to.
Berries, cherries, goose berries, lychee
- In the freezerUse by12 months after the day you stored it
- From purchase · in the fridgeUse by7 days after the day you bought it
Berries, blackberries, boysenberries, currant
- In the freezerUse by12 months after the day you stored it
- From purchase · in the fridgeUse by3 days to 6 days after the day you bought it
The USDA rates 2 kinds of this separately
The USDA files 2 separate entries under this name — cherries, goose berries, lychee and blackberries, boysenberries, currant — and they do not keep for the same time: Berries, blackberries, boysenberries, currant holds 3 days to 6 days outside the freezer, Berries, cherries, goose berries, lychee holds 7 days.
The shortest of these, Berries, blackberries, boysenberries, currant at 6 days, is a quality window, and past it the food is judged by look and smell.
Every storage figure the USDA publishes for this item
The USDA rates this item cold or frozen and never at room temperature: no pantry figure exists for it, as for 222 of the 466 foods in the data that get no pantry time at all. The source also indexes it as berry, cherries, cherry and goose berry.
Berries, cherries, goose berries, lychee
- In the freezer12 months
- From purchase · in the fridge7 days
Berries, blackberries, boysenberries, currant
- In the freezer12 months
- From purchase · in the fridge3 days to 6 days
Can you freeze berries?
Yes. The USDA gives berries (cherries, goose berries, lychee) 12 months in the freezer, and held at 0 °F food stays safe beyond that: the figure is about quality. Most produce goes soft when thawed, so frozen it suits cooking, smoothies and sauces rather than eating raw.
How to tell if berries have gone bad
Go by the windows listed above first. Mold, slime, a sour smell or soft dark spots mean it goes out; firm produce can be saved by cutting 1 inch around a small moldy spot, soft produce cannot. Refrigerate cut or peeled produce within 2 hours.
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.
It is past the date. Now what?
Say the shortest window under this name — Berries, blackberries, boysenberries, currant at 3 days to 6 days in the fridge — has run out. Past that the calendar stops deciding and the food itself does. Mold, a slimy or sticky surface, soft or darkened spots, or a sour smell mean it goes out whatever the date says.
What decides that is the food and not the shelf the source files it on: Berries, blackberries, boysenberries, currant is raw and whole. The whole rule, including the cases the source does not cover, is set out under what to do when the date has passed.
Items that behave the same way
Berries carries no single window to compare — its 2 kinds each keep their own — so these 6 are simply what the USDA rates on the same shelf, shortest first: Corn on the cob at 2 days through Parsley, fresh at 3 days.
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.
No one of the 2 is the kind the plain name means, so this page prints no single figure: the kinds are listed with their own windows and you pick yours.
USDA index terms: berry, blackberries, blackberry, boysenberries, boysenberry, cherries, cherry, currant, goose berries, goose berry, gooseberries, lychee
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.