How long does Vegetable stock/broth last in the fridge once opened?
Turning the range into a date
Vegetable stock/broth keeps 3–4 days 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, 3 rows in all.
- In the freezerUse by2 months to 3 months after the day you stored it
- In the fridgeUse by7 days after the day you stored it
- Once opened · in the fridgeUse by3 days to 4 days after the day you opened it
What opening the package actually costs
Opening the package is the decision that settles this page. Sealed, the item holds 7 days in the fridge; once open it holds 4 days open in the fridge, the same food measured in days instead of days, a drop of 1.8 times. Freezing extends it by 13 times over the refrigerator, from 7 days to 3 months.
Every storage figure the USDA publishes for this item
The USDA gives this item no pantry time in days: the 3 figures that carry numbers are all cold ones, and the pantry slot is answered in words instead.
- In the freezer2 months to 3 months
- In the pantryPackage use-by date
- In the fridge7 days
- Once opened · in the fridge3 days to 4 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 with the package date rather than a number, and the use-by date printed on that particular package is the figure to go by.
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. Bouillon cubes will keep their best quality 1 year. The reconstituted broth lasts 3-4 days in the refrigerator.
Can you freeze vegetable stock/broth?
Yes. The USDA gives vegetable stock/broth 2–3 months in the freezer, and held at 0 °F food stays safe beyond that: the figure is about quality. A sealed jar or can does not need the freezer; leftovers from an opened one freeze better in a small airtight container.
How to tell if vegetable stock/broth has gone bad
Go by the date first: vegetable stock/broth keeps 3–4 days in the fridge once opened. A bulging, leaking or badly dented can, or a jar whose lid has popped, goes out unopened; so does mold or fizzing in an opened one.
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 3 days to 4 days in the fridge once opened. What decides that is the food and not the shelf the source files it on: Vegetable stock/broth, commercially produced is an animal food, or made with one. Past it, it is not safe to eat: throw it out without tasting, because bacteria build up while food still looks and smells fine.
The figure in the freezer here is a quality window. The same page carries windows of more than one kind, so which sentence applies depends on which row you are reading, not on the food.
It is past the date. Now what?
Say the calculator above puts Vegetable stock/broth, commercially produced past its 3 days to 4 days in the fridge once opened window, or the container sat out on the counter overnight. Throw the container out without tasting it, and count any hours it already spent out of the refrigerator as part of that window rather than on top of it.
The USDA's limit for perishable food standing at room temperature is 2 hours, or 1 hour when the kitchen is above 90 °F, and that clock runs whatever the storage figure says. Freezing stops the clock but does not turn it back: food already past its window is not rescued by putting it in the freezer. 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
The 6 items below are the closest match to this item by storage behavior, running 4 days to 1 month and bracketing its 7 days.
- Chicken broth/stock/consommé, commercially producedkeeps exactly as long
- Tomato saucekeeps 3–5 days in the fridge once openedspaghetti, pizza
- Broth, homemadekeeps 3–4 days in the fridge
- Aioli, homemadekeeps 3–4 days in the fridge
- Duck fatkeeps 30 days in the fridge
- Frying oil, re-usedkeeps 1 month 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: broth, commercial vegetable broth, commercial vegetable stock, vegetable, Vegetable broth, Vegetable stock
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.