How long doesButterlast in the fridge?
The freezer helps less here than you would expect
The freezer buys less here than its reputation suggests: 4.5 times what the sealed fridge gives, 2 months against 9 months, both still measured in months. For this item freezing is an extension rather than a different way of keeping it.
Every storage figure the USDA publishes for this item
The USDA publishes no pantry storage time for this item, only a note about how long it may stand out, so the 2 figures that exist are all cold ones.
- In the freezer6 months to 9 months
- Unopened · in the fridge1 month to 2 months
What the USDA adds in words
The USDA attaches 1 handling note to this item, reproduced below word for word. It is not a storage time: it qualifies the figure above rather than replacing it. These are the source's own sentences, not ours, and they are the part of the FoodKeeper record that a table of durations cannot carry.
In the pantry. May be left at room temperature for 1 - 2 days.
Turning the range into a date
Counting 2 months forward from a date is not arithmetic anyone does reliably in their head. Give the field the day it went into storage.
- In the freezerUse by6 months to 9 months after the day you bought it
- Unopened · in the fridgeUse by1 month to 2 months after the day you bought it
Is this window about safety or about taste?
The answer at the top of this page reads 1 month to 2 months in the fridge. Butter does spoil, but a bacterial limit runs in days and this window runs past six weeks: the figure rates how good it will be. Past it, judge it by look and smell: this window rates how good the food will be, not the day it becomes a hazard.
Held at 0 °F food stays safe for as long as it stays frozen, which is why a freezer figure counts as quality on this site whatever the food is. Every figure assumes the food was sound when you stored it, that your refrigerator holds 40 °F or below and your freezer 0 °F or below, and that the package was handled normally.
It is past the date. Now what?
Say the calculator above puts Butter past its 1 month to 2 months in the fridge window. 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.
The FoodKeeper entry this page is built from prints storage times and nothing else, so anything past them here is USDA and FSIS guidance rather than a figure from the source. The whole rule, including the cases the source does not cover, is set out under what to do when the date has passed.
Is that a long time?
Among the 29 items the USDA files under Dairy Products & Eggs, this item ranks 7 by how long it keeps outside the freezer. Vegan Cheddar Cheese holds 4 months, Eggs holds 5 weeks. Among the 340 foods the USDA also gives a refrigerator figure, it keeps longer than 75% of them.
Items that behave the same way
Every one of the 6 nearest items keeps the same or less, 2 weeks to 5 weeks against the 2 months of this item, which makes it the durable end of the cluster.
- Eggskeeps 3 weeks sealed in the fridgein shell
- Whipped cream, aerosol cankeeps 3 weeks sealed in the fridge
- Pimento cheese, packagedkeeps 4 weeks in the fridge once opened
- Coffee creamerkeeps 3 weeks sealed in the fridgeliquid refrigerated
- Dips, sour cream basedkeeps 2 weeks sealed in the fridge
- Whipped toppingkeeps 2 weeks sealed in the fridgetub
Products the USDA rates in the same places
This is a common shape of record: 52 of the 466 products are rated in the same places, freezer from the day of purchase and refrigerator from the day of purchase, and 7 of the nine slots are left blank on all of them. Sorted by how close their windows are to this one, the nearest are Carrots, Buttermilk and Cabbage, and the rest of that group is what the list below draws on. Of the ones shown, none keeps longer than this one does.
- Carrots2 weeks sealed in the fridge
- Buttermilk1 week sealed in the fridge
- Cabbage1 week sealed in the fridge
- Celery1 week sealed in the fridge
- Leeks1 week sealed in the fridge
- Peppers4 days sealed in the fridge
- Turnips2 weeks sealed in the fridge
- Shucked clams3 days sealed in the fridge
The rest of the Dairy Products & Eggs shelf
The USDA puts this product on the Dairy Products & Eggs shelf together with 28 others, and 6 of them keep longer outside the freezer. The shelf runs from Powdered milk at 5 years down to Pudding at 2 days. Nearest this product by window are Eggs, Whipped cream and Pimento cheese, which is the order the list below is printed in. The order counts the longest window outside the freezer, so this item sits here at 2 months rather than at the 1 month sealed in the fridge its own answer prints.
- Eggs5 weeks3 weeks sealed in the fridge
- Whipped cream4 weeks3 weeks sealed in the fridge
- Pimento cheese4 weeks4 weeks in the fridge once opened
- Coffee creamer3 weeks3 weeks sealed in the fridge
- Buttermilk2 weeks1 week sealed in the fridge
- Cottage cheese2 weeks1 week in the fridge once opened
- Cream cheese2 weeks2 weeks sealed in the fridge
- Dips2 weeks2 weeks sealed in the fridge
If it has to keep longer than this
If it has to keep longer than 2 months, the Dairy Products & Eggs aisle gives 6 products that hold at least twice as long outside the freezer. The smallest step up is Vegan Cheddar Cheese at 4 months against this one's 2 months; after it come String Cheese, Margarine and Nacho cheese. They are printed below in the order the step gets bigger, not alphabetically. In the other direction, 21 entries in the category keep half as long or less, Whipped cream and Pimento cheese among them.
- Vegan Cheddar Cheese4 months3 days in the fridge once opened
- String Cheese5 months5 months sealed in the fridge
- Margarine6 months6 months sealed in the fridge
- Nacho cheese2 years2 weeks in the fridge once opened
- Ghee2 years1 year in the fridge
- Powdered milk5 years3 months in the pantry once opened
The record this page is built from
This page is built from a single FoodKeeper row, record 1 — the source’s own number for it, not a position — one of the 661 rows in the snapshot. That row fills 2 of the nine storage slots with a time, and the binding figure on it is printed by the source in months, which is the unit this page keeps rather than converting it to days. The record carries 1 handling note, quoted on this page word for word. Every figure here comes from one fixed snapshot, USDA FoodKeeper, retrieved 1 September 2026, and is not refreshed page by page.
Where these numbers come from
Every range on this page is published by the USDA FoodKeeper and reproduced unchanged. The multipliers, the rankings, the percentages and the dates are ours, computed from those ranges. Where the source gives a span such as 3 to 5 weeks, comparisons use the upper figure, and the full span is always printed.
Rankings cover only the items the USDA gives a usable figure for, and identical ranges share a place rather than being ordered arbitrarily. Neighbors are chosen by nearest storage time within the same category, never alphabetically: two foods filed next to each other by name usually have nothing to do with each other. The freezer is excluded from ranking because it flattens almost everything.
Where the USDA lists several kinds under one name, they share one page here and every kind keeps its own windows: the source prints them as separate rows, and a page that merged them would be inventing a figure the source never published. Comparisons and the place in the category are computed for the kind the plain name means — the shell egg for eggs, the can for tuna — which is settled name by name rather than by the order the source lists its rows in, and the page names it. Where the plain name means no single kind, the page prints no single figure at all and lists the kinds instead.
Source: USDA FoodKeeper, retrieved 1 September 2026. This site computes every comparison on this page and takes responsibility for it. Found a figure that does not match the source? Tell us on the contact page, with the page and the row — the parsing is mechanical, so a mismatch is our bug and we want it. How the whole site is built, which figures are ours and where the source can be checked is on the method page.
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.