How long doesPopcornlast in the pantry once opened?
The USDA rates 3 kinds of this separately
Popcorn, microwave packets keeps 1 day, which is shorter than the window this page answers with. The USDA files 3 separate entries under this name — dry kernels in jar, commercially popped in bags and microwave packets — and they do not keep for the same time: Popcorn, commercially popped in bags holds 2 months to 3 months outside the freezer, Popcorn, dry kernels in jar holds 2 years.
Sealed against opened
Opening the package costs 2 times here: 2 years sealed in the pantry against 1 year open in the pantry. 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.
Every storage figure the USDA publishes for this item
The USDA rates this item in the pantry and nowhere else, one of 84 foods of the 466 it files that way. The source also indexes it as dry kernels in jar, jar, dry kernels and kernels.
Popcorn, dry kernels in jar
- Unopened · in the pantry2 years
- Once opened · in the pantry1 year
Popcorn, commercially popped in bags
- Unopened · in the pantry2 months to 3 months
- Once opened · in the pantry1 week to 2 weeks
Popcorn, microwave packets
- Unopened · in the pantry6 months to 12 months
- Once opened · in the pantry1 day to 2 days
What the USDA adds in words
The USDA attaches 1 handling note to this item, reproduced below word for word. It is not a storage time: it qualifies the figure above rather than replacing it. These are the source's own sentences, not ours, and they are the part of the FoodKeeper record that a table of durations cannot carry.
Popcorn, microwave packets, in the pantry. After opening time applies to prepared product.
Turning the range into a date
Each kind gets its own dated rows here, 6 rows across the 3 the USDA lists under this name, because a date is only worth printing against the window it belongs to.
Popcorn, dry kernels in jar
- Unopened · in the pantryUse by2 years after the day you bought it
- Once opened · in the pantryUse by1 year after the day you opened it
Popcorn, commercially popped in bags
- Unopened · in the pantryUse by2 months to 3 months after the day you bought it
- Once opened · in the pantryUse by1 week to 2 weeks after the day you opened it
Popcorn, microwave packets
- Unopened · in the pantryUse by6 months to 12 months after the day you bought it
- Once opened · in the pantryUse by1 day to 2 days after the day you opened it
Is this window about safety or about taste?
The answer at the top of this page reads 1 year in the pantry once opened. The USDA rating this place at all is the USDA saying Popcorn, dry kernels in jar keeps there, so the figure rates how good it will be. Past it, judge it by look and smell: this window rates how good the food will be, not the day it becomes a hazard.
Every figure assumes the food was sound when you stored it, that your refrigerator holds 40 °F or below and your freezer 0 °F or below, and that the package was handled normally.
It is past the date. Now what?
Say the calculator above puts Popcorn, dry kernels in jar past its 1 year in the pantry once opened window. Past that the calendar stops deciding and the food itself does. A rancid, paint-like smell in a nut, an oil or a seed, mold around the neck of a bottle, or a swollen can mean it goes out whatever the date says.
The FoodKeeper entry this page is built from prints storage times and nothing else, so anything past them here is USDA and FSIS guidance rather than a figure from the source. The whole rule, including the cases the source does not cover, is set out under what to do when the date has passed.
The two sides of that multiplier are not the same dish
The 2× multiplier on this page is drawn across a change of preparation: the source's note on the pantry figure reads "After opening time applies to prepared product". It divides 2 years sealed in the pantry by 1 year open in the pantry, and those two are not the same dish. A multiplier whose sides are different preparations is worth printing only with the source's own scope note beside it.
Is that a long time?
10 items in the Shelf Stable Foods list keep exactly as long as Popcorn, dry kernels in jar, 2 years, so they all share place 12 of 70 rather than being put in an order the data does not support.
Items that behave the same way
All 6 of the 6 items nearest Popcorn, dry kernels in jar keep exactly as long as it does, 2 years, so the ranking around it is a tie rather than an order.
Products the USDA rates in the same places
This is a common shape of record: 30 of the 466 products are rated in the same places, pantry from the day of purchase and pantry after opening, and 7 of the nine slots are left blank on all of them. Sorted by how close their windows are to this one, the nearest are Textured soy protein, Chocolate and Vegetable oil sprays, and the rest of that group is what the list below draws on. Of the ones shown, none keeps longer than this one does.
- Textured soy protein3 months in the pantry once openedup to 2 years sealed in the pantry
- Chocolate1 year in the pantry once opened
- Vegetable oil sprays1 year in the pantry once openedup to 2 years sealed in the pantry
- Shortening6 months in the pantry once openedup to 2 years sealed in the pantry
- Chili powder2 years in the pantry once opened
- Seasoning blends1 year in the pantry once opened
- Beans1 year in the pantry once opened
- Pasta1 year in the pantry once openedup to 2 years sealed in the pantry
The rest of the Shelf Stable Foods shelf
The USDA puts this product on the Shelf Stable Foods shelf together with 69 others, and 11 of them keep longer outside the freezer. The shelf runs from Coconut cream at 5 years down to Polenta at 7 days. Nearest this product by window are Chocolate syrup, Molasses and Black pepper, which is the order the list below is printed in. Across the whole of Shelf Stable Foods the same product ranks 12 of 70. The middle of the shelf is Grapeseed oil, at 1 year. 5 products on this shelf publish no window outside the freezer and stay out of the order.
- Chocolate syrup2 years6 months in the fridge once opened
- Molasses2 years6 months in the pantry once opened
- Black pepper2 years2 years sealed in the pantry
- Cajun seasoning blend2 years1 year sealed in the pantry
- Flaxseed2 years2 years sealed in the pantry
- Almond oil2 years2 years sealed in the fridge
- "Genuine" Maple syrup2 years2 years in the pantry
- Sesame oil2 years6 months in the pantry once opened
If it has to keep longer than this
If it has to keep longer than 2 years, the Shelf Stable Foods aisle gives 7 products that hold at least twice as long outside the freezer. The smallest step up is Cinnamon at 4 years against this one's 2 years; after it come Cumin, Garlic powder and Onion powder. They are printed below in the order the step gets bigger, not alphabetically. In the other direction, 45 entries in the category keep half as long or less, Bacon bits and Marshmallows among them. The largest step the category offers is Sesame seeds at 5 years.
- Cinnamon4 years3 years sealed in the pantry
- Cumin4 years3 years sealed in the pantry
- Garlic powder4 years3 years sealed in the pantry
- Onion powder4 years3 years sealed in the pantry
- Nutmeg4 years3 years sealed in the pantry
- Coconut cream5 years4 days in the fridge once opened
- Sesame seeds5 years5 years in the pantry
The record this page is built from
The USDA publishes 3 separate rows under this name — records 389, 390 and 391 — and this page carries all of them rather than picking one, because their windows differ. Between them they fill 2 of the nine storage slots with a time. Comparisons and the place in the category are computed for Popcorn, dry kernels in jar, 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. The record carries 1 handling note, quoted on this page word for word.
Where these numbers come from
Every range on this page is published by the USDA FoodKeeper and reproduced unchanged. The multipliers, the rankings, the percentages and the dates are ours, computed from those ranges. Where the source gives a span such as 3 to 5 weeks, comparisons use the upper figure, and the full span is always printed.
Rankings cover only the items the USDA gives a usable figure for, and identical ranges share a place rather than being ordered arbitrarily. Neighbors are chosen by nearest storage time within the same category, never alphabetically: two foods filed next to each other by name usually have nothing to do with each other. The freezer is excluded from ranking because it flattens almost everything.
Where the USDA lists several kinds under one name, they share one page here and every kind keeps its own windows: the source prints them as separate rows, and a page that merged them would be inventing a figure the source never published. Comparisons and the place in the category are computed for the kind the plain name means — the shell egg for eggs, the can for tuna — which is settled name by name rather than by the order the source lists its rows in, and the page names it. Where the plain name means no single kind, the page prints no single figure at all and lists the kinds instead.
Source: USDA FoodKeeper, retrieved 1 September 2026. This site computes every comparison on this page and takes responsibility for it. Found a figure that does not match the source? Tell us on the contact page, with the page and the row — the parsing is mechanical, so a mismatch is our bug and we want it. How the whole site is built, which figures are ours and where the source can be checked is on the method page.
USDA index terms: bag, bags, chip, chips, commercially, dry kernels, dry kernels in jar, in bags, in jar, jar, kernel, kernels, microwave, microwave packets, packet, packets, popped in bags
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.