How long doKumquatslast in the fridge?
Why the freezer is not an option here
The USDA marks the freezer as not recommended for this item, so the whole answer is a single field: 3 weeks in the refrigerator. The source prints that verdict without a reason, and a reason we made up would be ours rather than theirs. It is not a warning: food held at 0 °F stays safe, so a not-recommended is a verdict on what would come out of the freezer.
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. It adds notes for other methods without giving them a time. The pantry slot is not blank either: the source answers it in words, below.
- In the freezernot recommended
- In the pantryUntil ripe
- In the fridge3 weeks
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 2 handling notes to this item, reproduced below word for word. None of them is a storage time: they qualify the figures above rather than replacing them. 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. Timeline for refrigerator applies to ripe fruit.
In the pantry. Ripe is when this item is tender, fully developed and ready to eat.
Turning the range into a date
One row, one deadline: 3 weeks in the refrigerator, counted from the day it went in rather than the day it was made.
- In the fridgeUse by3 weeks after the day you stored it
Is this window about safety or about taste?
The answer at the top of this page reads 3 weeks in the fridge. What decides that is the food and not the shelf the source files it on: Kumquats is raw and whole. Past it, judge it by look and smell: this window rates how good the food will be, not the day it becomes a hazard.
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 Kumquats past its 3 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 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?
15 items in the Produce list keep exactly as long as this item, 3 weeks, so they all share place 14 of 89 rather than being put in an order the data does not support. Among the 340 foods the USDA also gives a refrigerator figure, it keeps longer than 63% of them.
Items that behave the same way
All 6 of the 6 items nearest this item keep exactly as long as it does, 3 weeks, so the ranking around it is a tie rather than an order.
Products the USDA rates in the same places
This is a common shape of record: 22 of the 466 products are rated in the same places, refrigerator, and 8 of the nine slots are left blank on all of them. Sorted by how close their windows are to this one, the nearest are Radicchio, Duck fat and Quark, and the rest of that group is what the list below draws on. Of the 8 shown, 1 keeps longer than this one. The longest-keeping of them is Duck fat at 30 days. Counted more loosely, by which of the three places are rated at all, 64 products match this one.
- Radicchio2 weeks in the fridge
- Duck fat30 days in the fridge
- Quark7 days in the fridge
- Celery root1 week in the fridge
- Yuzu5 days in the fridge
- Arugula3 days in the fridge
- Kiwi fruit3 days in the fridge
- Potato salad3 days in the fridge
The rest of the Fresh Fruits shelf
The USDA puts this product on the Fresh Fruits shelf together with 29 others, and 5 of them keep longer outside the freezer. The shelf runs from Coconut at 1 year down to Cherries at 3 days. Nearest this product by window are Citrus fruit, Coconuts and Pitaya/dragon fruit, which is the order the list below is printed in. Across the whole of Produce the same product ranks 14 of 89. The middle of the shelf is Papaya, at 1 week. The shelf is the source's own subcategory, Fresh Fruits inside Produce.
- Citrus fruit21 days10 days sealed in the pantry
- Coconuts3 weeks2 weeks sealed in the fridge
- Pitaya/dragon fruit3 weeks2 days in the pantry
- Cantaloupe15 days5 days sealed in the fridge
- Blueberries2 weeks1 week sealed in the fridge
- Melons2 weeks2 days in the fridge once opened
- Star fruit2 weeks1 week in the pantry
- Prickly pear2 weeks2 days in the pantry
If it has to keep longer than this
If it has to keep longer than 3 weeks, the Produce aisle gives 12 products that hold at least twice as long outside the freezer. The smallest step up is Apples at 6 weeks against this one's 3 weeks; after it come Cranberries, Onions and Potatoes. They are printed below in the order the step gets bigger, not alphabetically. In the other direction, 45 entries in the category keep half as long or less, Basil and Bean sprouts among them. The largest step the category offers is Coconut at 1 year.
- Apples6 weeks4 weeks sealed in the fridge
- Cranberries2 months2 months sealed in the fridge
- Onions2 months2 months sealed in the fridge
- Potatoes2 months1 month sealed in the pantry
- Spaghetti squash2 months2 months in the pantry
- Pomegranate3 months1 month sealed in the fridge
- Jicama4 months4 months sealed in the pantry
- Pumpkins5 months3 months sealed in the fridge
The record this page is built from
This page is built from a single FoodKeeper row, record 414 — the source’s own number for it, not a position — one of the 661 rows in the snapshot. That row fills 1 of the nine storage slots with a time, and the binding figure on it is printed by the source in weeks, which is the unit this page keeps rather than converting it to days. 1 slot is marked not recommended, which is an answer rather than a gap.
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.
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.