What is the shelf-life of home-made tomato sauce?

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My husband made home-made tomato sauce two years ago that we still have on the shelf. It's stored in air tight mason jars and smells fine. Can we still eat this?



Best Answer

I would be very wary of that sauce, despite its good smell. For full disclosure, I am extremely conservative when it comes to food safety and shelf life, but here is some information that I found compelling:

WRT to average time any commercial tomato sauce can last on the shelf, a quick answer can be inferred by using this site: http://www.eatbydate.com/vegetables/fresh-vegetables/spaghetti-sauce-shelf-life-expiration-date/

It states that commercial sauce has a shelf life of about 1 year past the "eat-by" date. Your sauce, of course, has no such date, but assuming an eat-by date of about 1 year past bottling is probably pushing it. So, even a commercial product is probably on the edge of your 2 year scenario.

From a home-preparation POV, if you used the boiling-water method to preserve the sauce, I would say no, don't eat it. The pH associated with most spaghetti sauces (~5.0) is rarely low enough for the boiling-water method to be workable. Pressure-canning is an option (and if your sauce had meat or any meat products in it pressure canning is the ONLY option). If you pressure-canned, then I still think you're on the edge, but it's less scary to me.

Here's a link to a good article on that subject.

http://foodinjars.com/2010/08/canning-101-why-you-cant-can-your-familys-tomato-sauce/




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Quick Answer about "What is the shelf-life of home-made tomato sauce?"

Because homemade tomato sauce isn't made with shelf-stable preservatives, it has a shorter life in the refrigerator. Generally, homemade tomato sauce will last for three to five days; however, as long as it doesn't contain cream or cheese, you can easily freeze it in airtight quart containers.

How do you know if homemade tomato sauce is bad?

Bacteria grow rapidly at temperatures between 40 \xb0F and 140 \xb0F; homemade pasta sauce should be discarded if left for more than 2 hours at room temperature. How to tell if homemade pasta sauce is bad? If homemade pasta sauce develops an off odor, flavor or appearance, or if mold appears, it should be discarded.

How long can you store homemade sauce?

Homemade sauces will typically stay fresh in your refrigerator 3 to 4 days. Once frozen, you can safely store these same sauces for 6 months, sometimes longer.

How long can you keep tomato sauce in the fridge?

Once opened, tomato-based sauces are only good for five days to a week. Don't wait for the mold to form. In many cases, you won't see the mold in the sauce after five days, but it actually could be there. Some mold produce toxins that can be harmful, so why take the risk?

How do you store homemade tomato sauce?

Let cool completely on the counter \u2014 if any lids do not seal completely (the lids will invert and form a vacuum seal), refrigerate that sauce and use it within a week or freeze it for up to 3 months. Canned tomato sauce can be stored in the pantry for at least 1 year.



HOW TO MAKE \u0026 PRESERVE HOMEMADE TOMATO SAUCE




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