How long doesMayonnaiselast in the fridge once opened?
Sealed against opened
Opening the package costs 3 times here: 6 months sealed in the pantry against 2 months open in the fridge. That is a real difference and worth dating the container for, but not the collapse it becomes for the more perishable items in the same list.
Every storage figure the USDA publishes for this item
The USDA gives this item a pantry and a refrigerator figure and no freezer figure at all, the pattern behind 79 of the 466 foods in the data.
- Unopened · in the pantry3 months to 6 months
- Once opened · in the fridge2 months
What the USDA adds in words
The USDA attaches 1 handling note to this item, reproduced below word for word. It is about safety rather than quality, which is the distinction this data is easiest to get wrong. 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. Refrigeration ensures that commercial sauces and condiments stay fresh for a longer period of time. Shelf-stable commercial mayonnaise is safe when stored at room temperature after opening. Quality, not safety, is the reason the labels on these products suggest that they be refrigerated after opening.
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, 2 rows in all.
- Unopened · in the pantryUse by3 months to 6 months after the day you bought it
- Once opened · in the fridgeUse by2 months after the day you opened it
Is this window about safety or about taste?
The answer at the top of this page reads 2 months in the fridge once opened. What decides that is the record's own note: the source says quality, not safety, is why the label asks for the refrigerator once open. 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 Mayonnaise, commercial past its 2 months in the fridge once opened window. Past that the calendar stops deciding and the food itself does. A jar or can that is bulging, leaking or rusted goes out unopened, and so does an opened one with mold at the rim or a sour, fizzing smell.
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?
5 items in the Condiments, Sauces & Canned Goods list keep exactly as long as this item, 6 months, so they all share place 29 of 41 rather than being put in an order the data does not support.
Items that behave the same way
All 4 of the 6 items nearest this item keep exactly as long as it does, 6 months, 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: 27 of the 466 products are rated in the same places, pantry from the day of purchase and refrigerator after opening, and 7 of the nine slots are left blank on all of them. Sorted by how close their windows are to this one, the nearest are Doughnuts, Frosting or icing and Salad dressings, and the rest of that group is what the list below draws on. Of the 8 shown, 7 keep longer than this one. The longest-keeping of them is Chutney at 1 year.
- Doughnuts1 day sealed in the pantryup to 2 days in the fridge once opened
- Frosting or icing2 weeks in the fridge once openedup to 12 months sealed in the pantry
- Salad dressings1 month in the fridge once openedup to 12 months sealed in the pantry
- Coconut water1 day in the fridge once openedup to 12 months sealed in the pantry
- Chutney1 month in the fridge once openedup to 1 year sealed in the pantry
- Ketchup6 months in the fridge once openedup to 1 year sealed in the pantry
- Marinades6 months in the fridge once openedup to 1 year sealed in the pantry
- Pickles1 month in the fridge once openedup to 1 year 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 28 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 Pesto, Bacon grease and Hot sauce, which is the order the list below is printed in. Across the whole of Condiments, Sauces & Canned Goods the same product ranks 29 of 41. The middle of the shelf is Marinades, at 1 year.
- 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
- Duck fat30 days30 days in the fridge
- Frying oil1 month1 month in the fridge
- Beef broth/stock/consommé7 days3 days in the fridge once opened
- Chicken broth/stock/consommé7 days3 days in the fridge once opened
If it has to keep longer than this
If it has to keep longer than 6 months, the Condiments, Sauces & Canned Goods aisle gives 28 products that hold at least twice as long outside the freezer. The smallest step up is Cream sauces at 12 months against this one's 6 months; after it come Horseradish, Salad dressings and Barbecue sauce. They are printed below in the order the step gets bigger, not alphabetically. In the other direction, 8 entries in the category keep half as long or less, Duck fat and Frying oil among them.
- Cream sauces12 months6 months sealed in the pantry
- Horseradish12 months3 months in the fridge once opened
- Salad dressings12 months1 month in the fridge once opened
- Barbecue sauce1 year4 months in the fridge once opened
- Chutney1 year1 month in the fridge once opened
- Ketchup1 year6 months in the fridge once opened
- Marinades1 year6 months in the fridge once opened
- Pickles1 year1 month in the fridge once opened
The record this page is built from
This page is built from a single FoodKeeper row, record 350 — the source’s own number for it, not a position — one of the 661 rows in the snapshot. That row fills 2 of the nine storage slots with a time, and the binding figure on it is printed by the source in months, which is the unit this page keeps rather than converting it to days. The record carries 1 handling note, quoted on this page word for word. Every figure here comes from one fixed snapshot, USDA FoodKeeper, retrieved 1 September 2026, and is not refreshed page by page.
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: commercial, Mayonnaise
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.