How long does Frosting or icing last in the fridge once opened?
Turning the range into a date
Frosting or icing keeps 2–3 weeks in the fridge once opened. 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 by10 months to 12 months after the day you bought it
- Once opened · in the fridgeUse by2 weeks to 3 weeks after the day you opened it
What opening the package actually costs
Opening the package is the decision that settles this page. Sealed, the item holds 12 months sealed in the pantry; once open it holds 3 weeks open in the fridge, the same food measured in weeks instead of months, a drop of 17 times. On the same shelf it sits 25 of 52, between Flour at 12 months and Gelatin at 12 months. Frost and ice are the same food in the source list.
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. The source also indexes it as frost and ice.
- Unopened · in the pantry10 months to 12 months
- Once opened · in the fridge2 weeks to 3 weeks
Can you freeze frosting or icing?
The USDA prints no freezer time for frosting or icing. Frozen at 0 °F any food stays safe; whether it is still good after thawing is a matter of quality. Keep the fridge at 40 °F or below and the freezer at 0 °F.
How to tell if frosting or icing has gone bad
Go by the date first: frosting or icing keeps 2–3 weeks in the fridge once opened. 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 2 weeks to 3 weeks in the fridge once opened. What decides that is the food and not the shelf the source files it on: Frosting or icing 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 Frosting or icing past its 2 weeks to 3 weeks in the fridge once opened window. Past that the calendar stops deciding and the food itself does. Mold takes the whole package out rather than the slice it grew on, and so does a musty or old-oil smell in a flour or a mix.
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
All 6 of the 6 items nearest this item keep exactly as long as it does, 12 months, so the ranking around it is a tie rather than an order.
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.
USDA index terms: frost, Frosting, ice, icing
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.