Let’s say you made a batch of pizza sauce and have more than you can use. So, how long does pizza sauce last in the fridge?
You see, we tend to make too much of everything, but in the case of pizza sauce, you can at least store it in the fridge.
However, how long will it last there before you should throw it out for safety reasons?
If you have ever made your pizza sauce, you know it allows you to add your personal touch.
From making it spicier to adding in your favorite herbs, the number of different ingredients you may wish to incorporate extends further than you may have thought.
But this doesn’t only apply to pizza sauce that you make yourself. What happens if you purchase a jar of sauce rather than making your own? Don’t worry, as we also have you covered.
The Answer
Usually, pizza sauce will last in the fridge for five to seven days. However, this time does depend on several factors. You cannot just assume that everything will continue to taste amazing even after a week.
But that’s OK. We will help you better understand why pizza sauce can last so long in the fridge. Also, we will advise you on how to ensure everything will remain safe for longer than you had expected.
Below, we will tell you how to easily store pizza sauce to get the maximum time out of it and what to look for when it has gone rancid.
After all, it’s great to have the ability to store pizza sauce, but it doesn’t quite work if it will then make us ill.
However, don’t worry, as we have you covered every aspect.
Checking Your Fridge
But we need to get one thing straight. You must know your fridge is at the correct temperature or that time no longer applies. You could simply make yourself ill, even though that doesn’t solely apply to pizza sauce.
This time of anywhere from five to seven days only works if your fridge is kept at a temperature of between 0 and 5 degrees.
If it goes below that, you are moving into freezing territory. Go above it, and bacteria find it easier to multiply and start to grow.
That is why you need to own a refrigerator with a temperature display installed or buy a temperature gauge to place yourself. This makes sense not only for your pizza sauce but general food safety.
Also, it’s best not to store your remaining pizza sauce on your refrigerator door. The problem with having it there is the drop and temperature changes every time someone opens the door.
Instead, it would help if you kept the sauce on a shelf in the refrigerator. That should lead to a more consistent temperature, and your sauce has a better chance of remaining fresh for as long as possible.
The Type of Sauce Makes a Difference
But here we have an important point, and it’s to do with the type of sauce. Now, most people associate a tomato-based sauce with pizza, but you can also have a white sauce based on more of a carbonara and cream.
When it comes to storing, then a tomato-based sauce will last longer than any other sauce. It’s significantly safer to store the tomato option, so that’s the only sauce where it will last for close to those seven days.
If you want to store a white sauce, you should cut that time down to around three or four days. It’s just significantly safer because the bacteria and all those nasty things thrive more when it comes to a cream or cheese sauce rather than tomato.
How to Store the Sauce Safely in the Fridge
So let’s go through how you can safely store the pizza sauce in the fridge to ensure there’s no need to worry about it.
You need to ensure it’s as airtight as possible. If you have purchased a jar of sauce, then you hardly want to leave the lid off. But that’s not something you would do with anything.
Screw the lid on as tight as possible. Even just having the lid half on the jar will not suffice. Any opportunity for some air to get in is something that bacteria will take.
As a direct result, it will often mean your pizza sauce will no longer come across as edible after more than a day.
But what if you made the sauce?
Well, you should store it in your jar and something along the lines of a Kilner jar as they do have a pretty impressive seal on the lid. In this instance, you do want to ensure the jar has gone through a thorough cleaning process first.
Aside from storing it in an airtight container, you may also want to date the jar for when it will expire. It’s very easy to lose track of the date, and before you know it you find yourself eating pizza sauce that’s just not safe.
How to Know Pizza Sauce is Off
But let’s say you get to day four and want to use your pizza sauce. How do you know it’s safe to go ahead and use it even though it falls within this time window?
Well, it turns out that you have several key things to check out to ensure things are indeed safe to eat.
Now, you can begin by checking the date before you even open. Also, it does help if you label things and put a date on it to know if you still fall within the number of days where things should still prove safe to eat.
But the main thing is to check the sauce itself; in particular, you need to look out for mold.
Mold may appear obvious, but don’t always go with the appearance. Sure, you can see mold staring back at you, at which point you don’t eat it, but things can happen where the mold is not as visible as you would like it to be.
At that point, you need to go with one of your other senses, and it’s important to smell.
You will already know what your pizza sauce should smell like. It’s obvious, and that smell should not change even if the jar has remained open for a couple of days.
But if you notice a slight difference, you may want to stop and not use the remaining sauce.
The Key Smell
The key smell here is that the sauce can come across as sour. It may not have a strong sour smell to it, but this is a smell that should stand out as distinctly different from the pizza sauce smell.
But here we have a key thing. You can have this sour smell, but it won’t always have the physical signs of mold appearing on the surface.
That’s why we suggest going with your eyes and your nose to ensure your pizza sauce does not have any hidden nasties.
Taste
Finally, you have the taste, and once again, it’s a sour note that you get with the sauce. Also, you only need a small taste to know something has gone wrong, and that small taste will not make you ill.
But only taste it when you do not see any signs of mold, either in the sauce or even on the lid of the jar. If you do taste it even when mold is present, then you might run into a few health issues as a result.
Overall, we feel it should not be difficult to know when your pizza sauce is no longer safe to eat.
Of course, if you feel any doubt, you may want to throw it out and start again. Better safe than sorry when it comes to your health.
Overall Conclusion
So no matter if you have created your pizza sauce or even opened a jar, you now know it can last in the fridge for up to seven days.
However, even though seven days is the maximum, we recommend using it all up before then. Five days would probably work better as it just comes across as potentially safer for your health.
But then, surely, when you have pizza sauce ready to use, the best course of action is to use it up as soon as possible.
Who wants to have the ingredients sitting there for pizza and then go ahead and make it? That comes across as a waste, and who wants to waste pizza?
