How long does Swiss chard last in the fridge?
Turning the range into a date
Swiss chard keeps 1–2 weeks in the fridge from purchase. One row, one deadline: 2 weeks in the refrigerator from the day of purchase, counted from the day it went in rather than the day it was made.
- From purchase · in the fridgeUse by1 week to 2 weeks after the day you bought it
The methods the USDA actually rates for this item
The USDA rates only 1 of its nine storage methods for this item, and the refrigerator from the day of purchase is what it rates. The other 8 slots are blank, and a blank is not a zero: it means no published figure, not that the method fails. On the same shelf it sits 30 of 89, between Prickly pear at 2 weeks and Basil at 10 days.
Every storage figure the USDA publishes for this item
The refrigerator is the only place the USDA gives this item a storage time, as it does for 64 of the 466 foods the USDA lists. Within Produce it is filed under Fresh Vegetables.
- From purchase · in the fridge1 week to 2 weeks
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.
In the refrigerator, from the day you bought it. Keep them in a plastic bag to retain moisture.
Can you freeze Swiss chard?
The USDA prints no freezer time for Swiss chard. 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 Swiss chard has gone bad
Go by the date first: Swiss chard keeps 1–2 weeks in the fridge. Mold, slime, a sour smell or soft dark spots mean it goes out; firm produce can be saved by cutting 1 inch around a small moldy spot, soft produce cannot.
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 1 week to 2 weeks in the fridge. What decides that is the food and not the shelf the source files it on: Swiss chard is raw and whole. 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 Swiss chard past its 1 week to 2 weeks in the fridge 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
All 6 of the 6 items nearest this item keep exactly as long as it does, 2 weeks, 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.
USDA index terms: chard
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.