How long do Jams last in the fridge once opened?
Turning the range into a date
Jams keep 6–12 months 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 by6 months to 18 months after the day you bought it
- Once opened · in the fridgeUse by6 months to 12 months after the day you opened it
How vague the source is about this one
The source is unusually unsure about this one. Its widest range, the pantry from the day of purchase, runs from 6 months to 18 months, a factor of three between the cautious end and the optimistic one, on a figure most people read as a single number. Opening the package costs 1.5 times: 18 months sealed in the pantry, 12 months open in the fridge.
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 jelly.
- Unopened · in the pantry6 months to 18 months
- Once opened · in the fridge6 months to 12 months
Can you freeze jams?
The USDA prints no freezer time for jams. 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 jams have gone bad
Go by the date first: jams keep 6–12 months in the fridge once opened. 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 6 months to 12 months in the fridge once opened. What decides that is the food and not the shelf the source files it on: Jams, jellies, and preserves 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 Jams, jellies, and preserves past its 6 months to 12 months in the fridge once opened 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, 1 year to 18 months against the 18 months of this item, which makes it the durable end of the cluster.
- Spaghetti sauce, in jarskeeps exactly as long
- Barbecue saucekeeps 4 months in the fridge once openedbottled · up to 1 year sealed in the pantry
- Chutneykeeps 1–2 months in the fridge once openedup to 1 year sealed in the pantry
- Ketchup, cocktail, or chili saucekeeps 6 months in the fridge once openedup to 1 year sealed in the pantry
- Marinadeskeeps 6 months in the fridge once openedup to 1 year sealed in the pantry
- Pickleskeeps 1–3 months in the fridge once openedup to 1 year sealed in the pantry
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: jam, Jams, jellies, jelly, preserve, preserves
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.