Cheese - Can I eat the cheese past the best by date? - FAQ (2024)

FAQs

Cheese - Can I eat the cheese past the best by date? - FAQ? ›

So long as you still like the taste, the cheese is fine. Just be aware that the flavor will intensify on most cheeses over time. If the small bite of cheese makes your tongue, lips or cheek tingle or burn, the cheese is bad (even if it passed the look and smell tests).

Soft cheese (cream cheese) will last up to two weeks, whereas a medium or hard cheese (cheddar) can last three to six months. The Egg Safety Center reports that the dates on egg cartons are not food expiration dates, but guidelines.

"It's safe to say 'days' but not more than a week for most refrigerated produce, months to years for canned and dry goods in the pantry, and I would say to not go past the date in the fridge for meat/fish/poultry, but they can last three months with good quality and if properly stored in the freezer," Jones says.

The type of cheese is the biggest consideration - hard cheese will last longer and is less likely to pose a health risk, while soft and fresh cheeses should remain refrigerated and only be left out for two hours at most. No matter the cheese, leaving it out for more than two hours may change the quality and taste.

Will aged cheese go bad? Yes, aged cheese can go bad, but it has a longer shelf life than unaged cheese due to lower moisture content. When unopened and refrigerated, aged cheeses can last several months.

REFRIGERATOR: Approximate storage times are: (1) Hard cheeses (block): 6 months, unopened packages; 3 to 4 weeks after opening. Shredded hard cheeses: 1 month after opening. (2) Soft cheeses: 1 week; cream cheese, 2 weeks.

Shelf Life and Storage Tips

Unopened mozzarella can be expected to last beyond its 'sell by' date if kept refrigerated, typically staying fresh for 2 to 3 weeks for factory-sealed blocks and 4 to 6 weeks for refrigerated fresh mozzarella balls.

A "Best if Used By/Before" date indicates when a product will be of best flavor or quality. It is not a purchase or safety date. A "Sell-By" date tells the store how long to display the product for sale for inventory management.

A conservative 'best-before' date is designed to encourage you to eat the product while it is fresh and at its best, so you should consider 'best-before' dates as a guide only. Frozen and canned products, in particular, tend to keep their quality for some time after the 'best-before' date.

These labels indicate the date by which the manufacturer recommends using the product for optimal quality and freshness. Unlike expiration dates, use-by or best-by dates are not safety dates, and products can often be consumed safely after these dates have passed, as long as they've been stored properly.

When should you throw out cheese? ›

After opening, you can safely store most soft cheeses in the fridge for at least 7 days and most hard cheeses for 3–4 weeks. Carefully inspect hard cheeses for mold and cut off any spots, but toss soft cheeses and crumbled, shredded, or sliced cheeses (whether hard or soft) if you see mold.

When it has gone bad, it will taste overly bitter or sour, or have a musty quality to it, like drinking water from a moldy pipe. And if a mild cheese all of a sudden has some character to it, don't assume you just aged your own cheese. Just throw it away.

Hard cheeses that haven't been opened can last for several months and even up to a year when stored in the fridge. Blue cheeses like Stilton, Roquefort and Gorgonzola can have a shelf life of several months when unopened if they're refrigerated properly.

So long as you still like the taste, the cheese is fine. Just be aware that the flavor will intensify on most cheeses over time. If the small bite of cheese makes your tongue, lips or cheek tingle or burn, the cheese is bad (even if it passed the look and smell tests).

Cheese is a perishable dairy product, so if it isn't stored properly, it will mold.

Soft cheeses such as cottage cheese, ricotta or Brie can be refrigerated one week but they don't freeze well. Hard cheeses such as cheddar, Swiss and Parmesan can be stored in the refrigerator six months before opening the package and three to four weeks after opening. It can also be frozen six months.

Properly stored, provolone will last two to three weeks – and longer if it has already been aged (rule of thumb: the shelf life of any cheese depends on its moisture content, so the harder the cheese, the longer it will keep. Aged provolone, therefore, will keep longer than the softer “dolce” variety).

After the eggs reach home, they may be refrigerated 3 to 5 weeks from the date they are placed in the refrigerator. The Sell-By date will usually expire during that length of time, but the eggs are perfectly safe to use.

Canned goods and shelf-stable foods like boxed macaroni-and-cheese have greater latitude than their perishable cousins. Unopened, they can be eaten a year or two past their expiration dates, although there have been more extreme examples.