How long do Tomatoes last?
Turning the range into a date
Tomatoes keep until ripe, then about 7 days on the counter. One row, one deadline: unknown in the freezer from the day of purchase, counted from the day it went in rather than the day it was made.
- In the freezerUse by2 months after the day you bought it
Every storage figure the USDA publishes for this item
The freezer is the only method the USDA gives this item a time for, which it does for 15 of 466 foods. Those are the slots with a number in them. The pantry slot is not blank either: the source answers it in words rather than in days, and that answer is set out below.
- In the freezer2 months
- In the pantryUntil ripe, then about 7 days
Where the USDA answers in words instead of days
1 of the nine slots the USDA keeps for this item holds an answer that is not a number, and an answer in words is still an answer: in the pantry it answers Until ripe, so the clock is the fruit's own ripening rather than a count of 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.
In the pantry. Until Ripe, then 7 days. Ripe is when this item is tender, fully developed and ready to eat. Refrigeration may affect flavor; USDA recommends pantry storage.
Can you freeze tomatoes?
Yes. The USDA gives tomatoes 2 months in the freezer from the day you buy them, and held at 0 °F food stays safe beyond that: the figure is about quality. Most produce goes soft when thawed, so frozen it suits cooking, smoothies and sauces rather than eating raw.
How to tell if tomatoes have gone bad
Go by the date first: the USDA answer is until ripe, then about 7 days on the counter. 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.
Items that behave the same way
The USDA gives this item no window of its own to compare, so these 6 are simply what it does rate on the same shelf, shortest first: Corn on the cob at 2 days through Parsley, fresh at 3 days.
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: tomato
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.