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How long does Lemon juice last in the fridge once opened?

2 kinds · each with its own window

Lemon juice · Once opened · in the fridge

Use by2 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 test Where these numbers come fromThe USDA source, the parse rules and what this site cannot tell you Every food on the siteOne page, every product, longest first

Turning the range into a date

Lemon juice keeps 2 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.

Lemon juice

Unopened · in the pantryUse by12 months to 18 months after the day you bought it
Once opened · in the fridgeUse by2 months after the day you opened it

Lemon juice, fresh squeezed

In the freezerUse by12 months after the day you stored it
In the fridgeUse by6 days after the day you stored it

Lemon juice · Unopened · in the pantry

12 months to 18 months

Counted from the day you bought it

9×

Lemon juice · What opening the package costs540 days sealed in the pantry ÷ 60 days open in the fridge

The USDA rates 2 kinds of this separately

Lemon juice, fresh squeezed keeps 6 days, which is shorter than the window this page answers with. The USDA files 2 separate entries under this name — USDA record 448 and fresh squeezed — and they do not keep for the same time: Lemon juice, fresh squeezed holds 6 days outside the freezer, Lemon juice holds 12 months to 18 months.

Sealed against opened

Opening the package costs 9 times here: 18 months sealed in the pantry against 2 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 7 of 22, between Lime juice at 18 months and Vegetable juice at 18 months.

Every storage figure the USDA publishes for this item

All three places the USDA recognizes are rated here — pantry, refrigerator and freezer — which only 65 of the 466 foods in the data manage. The source also indexes it as fresh squeezed and squeezed.

Lemon juice

Unopened · in the pantry12 months to 18 months
Once opened · in the fridge2 months

Lemon juice, fresh squeezed

In the freezer12 months
In the fridge6 days

From KeepsUntilWhere these numbers come fromThe USDA source, the parse rules and what this site cannot tell you

Can you freeze lemon juice?

Some kinds, yes. The USDA gives lemon juice (fresh squeezed) 12 months in the freezer; held at 0 °F food stays safe beyond that. For lemon juice, the kind this page answers for, it gives no freezer figure. Liquids expand as they freeze, so leave headroom in the container and never freeze a sealed glass bottle.

How to tell if lemon juice has gone bad

Go by the date first: lemon juice keeps 2 months 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. Keep the fridge at 40 °F or below and the freezer at 0 °F.

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 2 months in the fridge once opened. What decides that is the food and not the shelf the source files it on: Lemon juice 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 Lemon juice past its 2 months 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.

Items that behave the same way

All 3 of the 6 items nearest Lemon juice keep exactly as long as it does, 18 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.

Comparisons and the place in the category are computed for Lemon juice, 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: fresh squeezed, juice, juices, lemon, squeezed

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.