How long does Lime juice last in the fridge once opened?
Turning the range into a date
Lime juice keeps 2 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 by12 months to 18 months after the day you bought it
- Once opened · in the fridgeUse by2 months after the day you opened it
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 Nectar, papaya, mango, guava, or guavabana at 18 months and Lemon juice at 18 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.
- Unopened · in the pantry12 months to 18 months
- Once opened · in the fridge2 months
Can you freeze lime juice?
The USDA prints no freezer time for lime juice. 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 lime juice has gone bad
Go by the date first: lime 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: Lime 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 Lime 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 this item keep exactly as long as it does, 18 months, so the ranking around it is a tie rather than an order.
- Nectar, papaya, mango, guava, or guavabanakeeps exactly as long
- Lemon juicekeeps exactly as long
- Vegetable juicekeeps exactly as long
- Diet powder mixes and drink mixeskeeps 1–3 months in the pantry once openedup to 24 months sealed in the pantry
- Coconut waterkeeps 1–2 days in the fridge once openedup to 12 months sealed in the pantry
- Yuzu juicekeeps 3–4 months in the fridge once openedup to 12 months sealed 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: juice, lime
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.