Will refrigerating unopened bottled food make it last longer?

[Wade Lippman]

I googled this and found nothing. Presumably refrigerator space is too scarce to waste on bottled food.

I ordered a bottle of sauce from Walmart and they shipped me a box of 6. It has a "use by" date of December, and I won't use more than 2 by then. We have a basement refrigerator; the freezer section is full, but the refrigerator is empty. So... would refrigerating the bottles make them last well into 2019?

As long as I am asking, I have a cache of freeze dried food. I know it is supposed to be good for 20 years (and I doubt I am good for 20 years) but as long as there is room in the refrigerator...

[Ruperto Mendiones]

I don't know about refrigerating bottled food's storage life but I do know that "use by" dates are quite arbitrary. Consumer reports mentioned this a few months ago. Sauces...I'd be inclined to use them beyond the use by date cooled or not.

[Bruce Koch]

When my was alive she worked for a major frozen food mfg and and most food will keep long past the date on the product. after a while it starts to flavor but safe to eat. I'm sure its the same for refrigerated foods.

[roger wiegand]

As a general rule of thumb, chemical reactions slow by a factor of two for each 10 degree (C) drop in temperature. (Exothermic reactions excepted of course) So it's reasonable to expect that the kinds of chemical reactions that make food stale or rancid will be much slower in the fridge.

I don't know so much about foods, but for most drugs the expiration date is not when it goes bad, but rather how long the company was willing to run the study. If they think that two years is "long enough" they will run a 24 month study, show the drug is still good at that point and label accordingly. The drug might in fact be good for decades, but no one wants to pay for that long a test. I'm amused by things like "use by" dates on table salt-- it's lifetime is probably in the tens of billions of years, it would take exploding stars to do much to it.

[Thomas L Carpenter]

Odds are it will be fine. Are you willing to chance it for a few bottles of sauce? Does it get heated prior to use? If yes than go for it.

[Phil Mueller]

Some marriages are strained by squeezing the toothpaste in the wrong place. The LOML continuously tosses anything that is past the “use by” date. I’m mean really, dried boxed pasta? Anyway, if it’s commercially canned (glass jar) produced, I think you’re good for quite some time, especially if refrigerated. Like said above, it’s not that it will make you sick, it just may be a bit off flavor after a long time of storage.

[Bill Dufour]

Having grown up in a very different climate then where I live now I can tell you the reverse is true so probably you are correct. Products have an almost infinite shelf life when it never goes over 75 inside. But move to a place where it is over 85 inside all summer and stuff goes bad on the shelf.
Bil ld

[Bill Jobe]

I googled this and found nothing. Presumably refrigerator space is too scarce to waste on bottled food.

I ordered a bottle of sauce from Walmart and they shipped me a box of 6. It has a "use by" date of December, and I won't use more than 2 by then. We have a basement refrigerator; the freezer section is full, but the refrigerator is empty. So... would refrigerating the bottles make them last well into 2019?

As long as I am asking, I have a cache of freeze dried food. I know it is supposed to be good for 20 years (and I doubt I am good for 20 years) but as long as there is room in the refrigerator...

If you store freeze dried food in the fridge, then open it you will have to use it all very soon. It will absorb moisture and go bad.