How long doesChocolate syruplast in the fridge once opened?
What opening the package actually costs
Opening the package is the decision that settles this page. Sealed, the item holds 2 years sealed in the pantry; once open it holds 6 months open in the fridge, the same food measured in months instead of years, a drop of 4 times.
Every storage figure the USDA publishes for this item
The USDA gives this item a pantry and a refrigerator figure and no freezer figure at all, the pattern behind 79 of the 466 foods in the data.
- Unopened · in the pantry2 years
- Once opened · in the pantrynot recommended
- Once opened · in the fridge6 months
Turning the range into a date
Two clocks run on this item: one from the day it went into storage and one from the day the seal broke. Both are listed below, 2 rows in all.
- Unopened · in the pantryUse by2 years after the day you bought it
- Once opened · in the fridgeUse by6 months after the day you opened it
Is this window about safety or about taste?
The answer at the top of this page reads 6 months in the fridge once opened. What decides that is the food and not the shelf the source files it on: Chocolate syrup is acid, dry, sweet, alcoholic or pure fat. Past it, judge it by look and smell: this window rates how good the food will be, not the day it becomes a hazard.
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 Chocolate syrup past its 6 months in the fridge once opened 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 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?
10 items in the Shelf Stable Foods list keep exactly as long as this item, 2 years, so they all share place 12 of 70 rather than being put in an order the data does not support. Among the 340 foods the USDA also gives a refrigerator figure, it keeps longer than 84% of them.
Items that behave the same way
All 6 of the 6 items nearest this item keep exactly as long as it does, 2 years, so the ranking around it is a tie rather than an order.
Products the USDA rates in the same places
This is a common shape of record: 27 of the 466 products are rated in the same places, pantry from the day of purchase and refrigerator after opening, 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 Thai red curry paste, Black bean sauce and Oyster sauce, and the rest of that group is what the list below draws on. Of the ones shown, none keeps longer than this one does.
- Thai red curry paste5 days in the fridge once openedup to 2 years sealed in the pantry
- Black bean sauce3 months in the fridge once openedup to 24 months sealed in the pantry
- Oyster sauce3 months in the fridge once openedup to 24 months sealed in the pantry
- Hoisin sauce3 months in the fridge once openedup to 24 months sealed in the pantry
- Jams6 months in the fridge once opened
- Spaghetti sauce4 days in the fridge once openedup to 18 months sealed in the pantry
- Lime juice2 months in the fridge once openedup to 18 months sealed in the pantry
- Pastries5 days sealed in the pantryup to 14 months in the fridge once opened
The rest of the Shelf Stable Foods shelf
The USDA puts this product on the Shelf Stable Foods shelf together with 69 others, and 11 of them keep longer outside the freezer. The shelf runs from Coconut cream at 5 years down to Polenta at 7 days. Nearest this product by window are Molasses, Popcorn and Black pepper, which is the order the list below is printed in. Across the whole of Shelf Stable Foods the same product ranks 12 of 70. The middle of the shelf is Grapeseed oil, at 1 year. 5 products on this shelf publish no window outside the freezer and stay out of the order.
- Molasses2 years6 months in the pantry once opened
- Popcorn2 years1 year in the pantry once opened
- Black pepper2 years2 years sealed in the pantry
- Cajun seasoning blend2 years1 year sealed in the pantry
- Flaxseed2 years2 years sealed in the pantry
- Almond oil2 years2 years sealed in the fridge
- "Genuine" Maple syrup2 years2 years in the pantry
- Sesame oil2 years6 months in the pantry once opened
If it has to keep longer than this
If it has to keep longer than 2 years, the Shelf Stable Foods aisle gives 7 products that hold at least twice as long outside the freezer. The smallest step up is Cinnamon at 4 years against this one's 2 years; after it come Cumin, Garlic powder and Onion powder. They are printed below in the order the step gets bigger, not alphabetically. In the other direction, 45 entries in the category keep half as long or less, Bacon bits and Marshmallows among them. The largest step the category offers is Sesame seeds at 5 years.
- Cinnamon4 years3 years sealed in the pantry
- Cumin4 years3 years sealed in the pantry
- Garlic powder4 years3 years sealed in the pantry
- Onion powder4 years3 years sealed in the pantry
- Nutmeg4 years3 years sealed in the pantry
- Coconut cream5 years4 days in the fridge once opened
- Sesame seeds5 years5 years in the pantry
The record this page is built from
This page is built from a single FoodKeeper row, record 376 — 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 years, which is the unit this page keeps rather than converting it to days. 1 slot is marked not recommended, which is an answer rather than a gap.
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.
USDA index terms: Chocolate, syrup
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.