How long doSun dried tomatoeslast in the fridge once opened?
What opening the package actually costs
Opening the package is the decision that settles this page. Sealed, the item holds 1 year sealed in the pantry; once open it holds 6 months open in the fridge, the same food measured in months instead of years, a drop of 2 times.
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 pantry1 year
- Once opened · in the pantry3 months to 6 months
- Once opened · in the fridge3 months to 6 months
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.
- Unopened · in the pantryUse by1 year after the day you bought it
- Once opened · in the pantryUse by3 months to 6 months after the day you opened it
- Once opened · in the fridgeUse by3 months to 6 months after the day you opened it
Is this window about safety or about taste?
The answer at the top of this page reads 3 months to 6 months in the fridge once opened. What decides that is the food and not the shelf the source files it on: Sun dried tomatoes, jar is acid, dry, sweet, alcoholic or pure fat. 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 Sun dried tomatoes, jar past its 3 months to 6 months in the fridge once opened window. Past that the calendar stops deciding and the food itself does. A rancid, paint-like smell in a nut, an oil or a seed, mold around the neck of a bottle, or a swollen can 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?
12 items in the Shelf Stable Foods list keep exactly as long as this item, 1 year, so they all share place 26 of 70 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 84% of them.
Items that behave the same way
All 5 of the 6 items nearest this item keep exactly as long as it does, 1 year, so the ranking around it is a tie rather than an order.
Products the USDA rates in the same places
8 other products are rated in exactly these places — pantry from the day of purchase, pantry after opening and refrigerator after opening — out of the 466 in the file, so this is an uncommon shape of record. The nearest of them by keeping time are Flour, Oils and Nut oils. They are listed below with their own answers, closest first, which is why this list differs from the one on their pages. Of the 8 shown, 2 keep longer than this one. The longest-keeping of them is Cornmeal at 2 years.
- Flour6 months in the pantry once openedwhite
- Oils3 months in the pantry once openedup to 12 months sealed in the pantry
- Nut oils6 months in the fridge once opened
- Tamarind paste6 months in the pantry once opened
- Fruits, dried6 months in the fridge once opened
- Fruit Juice in cartons8 days in the fridge once openedup to 3 weeks sealed in the pantry
- Cornmeal6 months sealed in the pantryregular, degerminated · up to 2 years in the pantry once opened
- Rice1 year in the pantry once openedwhite or wild · up to 2 years sealed in the pantry
The rest of the Shelf Stable Foods shelf
The USDA puts this product on the Shelf Stable Foods shelf together with 69 others, and 25 of them keep longer outside the freezer. The shelf runs from Coconut cream at 5 years down to Polenta at 7 days. Nearest this product by window are Bacon bits, Marshmallows and Nuts, which is the order the list below is printed in. Across the whole of Shelf Stable Foods the same product ranks 26 of 70. The middle of the shelf is Grapeseed oil, at 1 year. 5 products on this shelf publish no window outside the freezer and stay out of the order.
- Bacon bits1 year1 year sealed in the pantry
- Marshmallows1 year1 month in the pantry once opened
- Nuts1 year2 months in the pantry once opened
- Pudding mixes1 year3 months in the pantry once opened
- Soup mixes1 year1 year in the pantry once opened
- Syrup1 year6 months in the fridge once opened
- Almond butter1 year1 year in the pantry
- Canola oil1 year1 year sealed in the pantry
If it has to keep longer than this
If it has to keep longer than 1 year, the Shelf Stable Foods aisle gives 21 products that hold at least twice as long outside the freezer. The smallest step up is Chocolate syrup at 2 years against this one's 1 year; after it come Molasses, Popcorn and Black pepper. They are printed below in the order the step gets bigger, not alphabetically. In the other direction, 15 entries in the category keep half as long or less, Fruits, dried and Cashews among them. The largest step the category offers is Sesame seeds at 5 years.
- Chocolate syrup2 years6 months in the fridge once opened
- Molasses2 years6 months in the pantry once opened
- Popcorn2 years1 year in the pantry once opened
- Black pepper2 years2 years sealed in the pantry
- Cajun seasoning blend2 years1 year sealed in the pantry
- Flaxseed2 years2 years sealed in the pantry
- Almond oil2 years2 years sealed in the fridge
- "Genuine" Maple syrup2 years2 years in the pantry
The record this page is built from
This page is built from a single FoodKeeper row, record 397 — 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 binding figure on it is printed by the source in years, which is the unit this page keeps rather than converting it to days. 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: dried, dried tomatoes, sun, sun dried, Sun dried tomatoes, tomato, tomatoes
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.