Do you have to store hot sauce in the fridge or not?
By now you have collected a serious amount of different hot sauces, but where do you store them? Just on a shelf above the counter or should you store them in the fridge? To prevent that you end up with half full bottles that passed their best before date you should check out the following things.
Watch out for heat
Hot sauce is usually a very long-lasting condiment that doesn’t expire. Some, often the hottest ones, can be good for about 4 years. The best before date is always on the bottle (often with American dates where it’s month first and day second). Once you have opened a bottle things change. What you definitely shouldn’t do is let the sauce get warm by storing it too close to the stove or storing it in direct sunlight. This could easily ruin hot sauces, because you don’t want them to get hot, then cold, then hot and so on.
Hot sauce with fruit
In most hot sauces vinegar is one of the main ingredients. Together with the peppers this makes it a very long-lasting condiment. Still, there are hot sauces with fruit in it. With these sauces you have to be more careful. We always advise to store them in the fridge.
Check the bottle
If you follow the rules mentioned above you will most likely be okay, but what you should always do is check the hot sauce bottle. The maker of the sauce almost always gives advise on how to store them on the bottle itself. Does it say ‘refrigerate after opening’? Well, unsurprisingly that means you should store it in the fridge.
Conclusion
To be 100% sure we advise everyone to store the hot sauce in a fridge or in a cool and dark place. As long as you don’t store it in direct sunlight or on a location where it gets heated often (for exeample by a stove), there is little that can happen with your hot sauce. And again: always check the bottle for advise on how to store it.
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