How long do Fruit juice in cartons last in the fridge once opened?
Turning the range into a date
Fruit juice in cartons keep 8–12 days 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, 3 rows in all.
- Unopened · in the pantryUse by3 weeks after the day you bought it
- Once opened · in the pantryUse by7 days to 12 days after the day you opened it
- Once opened · in the fridgeUse by8 days to 12 days 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 3 weeks sealed in the pantry; once open it holds 12 days open in the fridge, the same food measured in days instead of weeks, a drop of 1.8 times. On the same shelf it sits 14 of 22, between Cream liquors, unopened at 8 months and Apple cider, fresh at 3 weeks. Carton and drink 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.
- Unopened · in the pantry3 weeks
- Once opened · in the pantry7 days to 12 days
- Once opened · in the fridge8 days to 12 days
Can you freeze fruit juice in cartons?
The USDA prints no freezer time for fruit juice in cartons. Frozen at 0 °F any food stays safe; whether they are 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 fruit juice in cartons have gone bad
Go by the date first: fruit juice in cartons keep 8–12 days in the fridge once opened. Unexpected fizzing, cloudiness, floating strands or a sour smell mean it goes out. Once opened, keep it in the fridge at 40 °F or below.
Sources: USDA FSIS: the danger zone USDA FSIS: freezing and food safety 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 days to 12 days in the fridge once opened. What decides that is the food and not the shelf the source files it on: it 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 it past its 8 days to 12 days in the fridge once opened window. Past that the calendar stops deciding and the food itself does. Fizzing that should not be there, cloudiness, floating strands or a sour smell 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 it in one state and they disagree: 8 days to 12 days in the fridge once opened against 7 days to 12 days in the pantry once opened. This page answers with the refrigerator, the longer of the two. 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
Every one of the 6 nearest items keeps the same or less, 6 days to 3 weeks against the 3 weeks of this item, which makes it the durable end of the cluster.
- Apple cider, freshkeeps exactly as long
- Juice, boxeskeeps 8–12 days in the fridge once opened
- Soy or rice beveragekeeps 7–10 days in the fridge once opened
- Orange juicekeeps 7–10 days in the fridge once openedcommercially packaged carton
- Yuzu, fruit, freshkeeps 5–7 days in the fridge
- Apple juice, fresh squeezedkeeps 6 days in the fridge
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: carton, cartons, drink, drinks, fruit, fruit drinks, fruit juice, Fruit Juice in cartons, juice in cartons, punch
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.