How long does Frying oil last in the fridge?
Turning the range into a date
Frying oil keeps 1 month in the fridge. Counting 1 month 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 stored it
- In the fridgeUse by1 month after the day you stored it
The freezer helps less here than you would expect
The freezer buys less here than its reputation suggests: 9 times what the refrigerator gives, 1 month against 9 months, both still measured in months. For this item freezing is an extension rather than a different way of keeping it. On the same shelf it sits 34 of 41, between Duck fat at 30 days and Beef broth/stock/consommé, commercially produced at 7 days. Re-used oil in the source list is this same food.
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.
- In the freezer6 months to 9 months
- In the fridge1 month
Can you freeze frying oil?
Yes. The USDA gives frying oil 6–9 months in the freezer, and held at 0 °F food stays safe beyond that: the figure is about quality. A sealed jar or can does not need the freezer; leftovers from an opened one freeze better in a small airtight container.
How to tell if frying oil has gone bad
Go by the date first: frying oil keeps 1 month in the fridge. A bulging, leaking or badly dented can, or a jar whose lid has popped, goes out unopened; so does mold or fizzing in an opened one. 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 1 month in the fridge. What decides that is the food and not the shelf the source files it on: Frying oil, re-used 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 Frying oil, re-used past its 1 month in the fridge window. Past that the calendar stops deciding and the food itself does. A jar or can that is bulging, leaking or rusted goes out unopened, and so does an opened one with mold at the rim or a sour, fizzing smell.
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
Every one of the 6 nearest items keeps the same or less, 4 days to 30 days against the 1 month of this item, which makes it the durable end of the cluster.
- Duck fatkeeps exactly as long
- Chicken broth/stock/consommé, commercially producedkeeps 3–4 days in the fridge once openedup to 7 days in the fridge
- Vegetable stock/broth, commercially producedkeeps 3–4 days in the fridge once openedup to 7 days in the fridge
- Tomato saucekeeps 3–5 days in the fridge once openedspaghetti, pizza
- Broth, homemadekeeps 3–4 days in the fridge
- Aioli, homemadekeeps 3–4 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: Frying oil, oil, re-used oil
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.