How long doesVegetable stock/brothlast in the fridge once opened?

Freezing changes the unit, not just the number

Here the freezer does not so much extend the answer as replace it. 7 days in the refrigerator becomes 3 months in the freezer: 13 times longer, and days turning into months. Opening the package costs 1.8 times: 7 days in the fridge, 4 days open in the fridge.

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.

Turning the range into a date

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

Is this window about safety or about taste?

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, throw it out rather than taste it: a perishable food can carry enough bacteria to make you ill while it 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. Held at 0 °F food stays safe for as long as it stays frozen, which is why a freezer figure counts as quality on this site whatever the food is. 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 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 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.

Is that a long time?

3 items in the Condiments, Sauces & Canned Goods list keep exactly as long as this item, 7 days, so they all share place 36 of 41 rather than being put in an order the data does not support.

Items that behave the same way

The 6 items below are the closest match to this item by storage behavior, running 4 days to 6 months and bracketing its 7 days.

• Tomato saucekeeps 3 days in the fridge once openedspaghetti, pizza
• Broth, homemadekeeps 3 days in the fridge
• Aioli, homemadekeeps 3 days in the fridge
• Duck fatkeeps 30 days in the fridge
• Frying oil, re-usedkeeps 1 month in the fridge
• Mayonnaise, commercialkeeps 2 months in the fridge once openedup to 6 months sealed in the pantry

Products the USDA rates in the same places

Only 2 other products in the whole file carry the same set of rated places as this one, freezer, refrigerator and refrigerator after opening: Beef broth/stock/consommé and Chicken broth/stock/consommé. That is 2 products out of 466, which makes this a rare shape of record rather than a common one, and it is worth knowing that the comparison below is drawn from a very small group. Of the ones shown, none keeps longer than this one does. The longest-keeping of them is Beef broth/stock/consommé at 7 days.

• Beef broth/stock/consommé3 days in the fridge once openedup to 7 days in the fridge
• Chicken broth/stock/consommé3 days in the fridge once openedup to 7 days in the fridge

Closest by shape, but not an exact match — they share most of these places, not all of them.

• Salsa1 month in the fridge once openedpicante and taco sauces · up to 1 year sealed in the pantry
• Broth3 days in the fridge
• Frying oil1 month in the fridge
• Pesto3 days in the fridge once openedup to 6 months sealed in the fridge
• Bacon grease6 months in the fridge
• Salad dressing3 weeks in the fridge once openedcreamy · up to 6 months sealed in the pantry

The rest of the Condiments, Sauces & Canned Goods shelf

The USDA puts this product on the Condiments, Sauces & Canned Goods shelf together with 40 others, and 35 of them keep longer outside the freezer. The shelf runs from Gravy at 5 years down to Aioli at 4 days. Nearest this product by window are Beef broth/stock/consommé, Chicken broth/stock/consommé and Tomato sauce, which is the order the list below is printed in. Across the whole of Condiments, Sauces & Canned Goods the same product ranks 36 of 41. The middle of the shelf is Marinades, at 1 year.

• Beef broth/stock/consommé7 days3 days in the fridge once opened
• Chicken broth/stock/consommé7 days3 days in the fridge once opened
• Tomato sauce5 days3 days in the fridge once opened
• Broth4 days3 days in the fridge
• Aioli4 days3 days in the fridge
• Duck fat30 days30 days in the fridge
• Frying oil1 month1 month in the fridge
• Mayonnaise6 months2 months in the fridge once opened

If it has to keep longer than this

If it has to keep longer than 7 days, the Condiments, Sauces & Canned Goods aisle gives 35 products that hold at least twice as long outside the freezer. The smallest step up is Duck fat at 30 days against this one's 7 days; after it come Frying oil, Mayonnaise and Pesto. They are printed below in the order the step gets bigger, not alphabetically. The largest step the category offers is Anchovies at 5 years. Freezing this one instead would reach 3 months, which the comparison above leaves out on purpose.

• Duck fat30 days30 days in the fridge
• Frying oil1 month1 month in the fridge
• Mayonnaise6 months2 months in the fridge once opened
• Pesto6 months3 days in the fridge once opened
• Bacon grease6 months6 months in the fridge
• Hot sauce6 months6 months in the pantry
• Salad dressing6 months3 weeks in the fridge once opened
• Cream sauces12 months6 months sealed in the pantry

The record this page is built from

This page is built from a single FoodKeeper row, record 487 — the source’s own number for it, not a position — one of the 661 rows in the snapshot. That row fills 3 of the nine storage slots with a time, and the source prints its binding figure in days, so the window at the top of this page is the source's own number untouched. 1 slot is answered in words instead of days, and printed as the source wrote it.

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: 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.