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How long does Jerky last in the fridge once opened?

2 kinds · each with its own window
Jerky, commercially dried · Once opened · in the fridge
Use by2 months to 3 months
Counted from the day you opened it
Quality window · past it, judge it yourself
How this date is worked out
From KeepsUntilIt is past the dateWhat to do when the window has run out, and when tasting is not a testWhere these numbers come fromThe USDA source, the parse rules and what this site cannot tell youEvery food on the siteOne page, every product, longest first

Turning the range into a date

Jerky (commercially dried) keeps 2–3 months in the fridge once opened. Each kind gets its own dated rows here, 4 rows across the 2 the USDA lists under this name, because a date is only worth printing against the window it belongs to.

Jerky, commercially dried

  • From purchase · in the pantryUse by12 months after the day you bought it
  • Once opened · in the fridgeUse by2 months to 3 months after the day you opened it

Jerky, homemade

  • In the pantryUse by1 month to 2 months after the day you stored it
  • In the fridgeUse by1 month to 2 months after the day you stored it
Jerky, commercially dried · From purchase · in the pantry
12 months
Counted from the day you bought it
4×
Jerky, commercially dried · What opening the package costs360 days in the pantry from purchase ÷ 90 days open in the fridge

The USDA rates 2 kinds of this separately

Jerky, homemade keeps 1 month, which is shorter than the window this page answers with. The USDA files 2 separate entries under this name — commercially dried and homemade — and they do not keep for the same time: Jerky, homemade holds 1 month to 2 months outside the freezer, Jerky, commercially dried holds 12 months.

Sealed against opened

Opening the package costs 4 times here: 12 months in the pantry from purchase against 3 months open in the fridge. That is a real difference and worth dating the container for, but not the collapse it becomes for the more perishable items in the same list. On the same shelf it sits 2 of 19, between Meat products, canned at 5 years and Prosciutto at 3 months.

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 commercially dried, dried and homemade.

Jerky, commercially dried

  • From purchase · in the pantry12 months
  • Once opened · in the fridge2 months to 3 months

Jerky, homemade

  • In the pantry1 month to 2 months
  • In the fridge1 month to 2 months
From KeepsUntilWhere these numbers come fromThe USDA source, the parse rules and what this site cannot tell you

Can you freeze jerky?

The USDA prints no freezer time for jerky. 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 jerky has gone bad

Go by the date first: jerky keeps 2–3 months 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 months to 3 months in the fridge once opened. Jerky, commercially dried does spoil, but a bacterial limit runs in days and this window runs past six weeks: the figure rates how good it will be. 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 Jerky, commercially dried past its 2 months to 3 months in the fridge once opened window. Past that the calendar stops deciding and the food itself does. Mold, a slimy or sticky surface, soft or darkened spots, 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.

Items that behave the same way

Every one of the 6 nearest items keeps the same or less, 7 days to 3 months against the 12 months of Jerky, commercially dried, which makes it the durable end of the cluster.

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.

Comparisons and the place in the category are computed for Jerky, commercially dried, which is the kind the plain name means here, chosen kind by kind rather than by the order the source happens to list them in.

USDA index terms: commercially dried, dried, homemade

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.

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