Pizza sauce is primarily tomato based just like spaghetti sauce/pasta sauce so it will spoil over time. As sauces go they are my all time favourite. There are two easy options for storing excess pizza sauces/spaghetti sauces that will prolong its shelf life – the refrigerator or the freezer.
Pizza sauce lasts for approximately three – five days in the fridge. If you have opened shop bought sauce then it should be ok for between 7 and 14 days as it contains preservatives.
Homemade pizza is made up of only a few core ingredients, pizza dough, tomato sauce, cheese and other toppings. You need to store them correctly and for the right amount of time. Done correctly you can ensure your sauce last for days to months and ensure it still taste great.
Its important to make sure that any sauce (pizza, pasta or spaghetti) you use is still good and hasn’t gone bad. If you use sauce that is past its best then it wont taste great and worst case you and your family could fall sick. So in this article we are going to go through how long sauce will keep and the signs you may want to look out for if the sauce has turned.
How Does A Fridge Preserve Pizza Sauce?
Tomato based foods (like spaghetti sauce) will spoil over time due to the build up of bacteria. Cold is one thing that slows down movement and causes bacteria to become dormant. bacteria leads to mold. The colder it is the more dormant they may become which is why a deep freeze will preserve tomato sauce longer than a cool place but both will prolong its shelf life buy slowing the speed at which mold will appear.
Date of preparation is key to know. If you don’t know that date you wont know how long the food will be good for, days or months. Keep a lid on the container because once opened that shortens the time.
Does Pizza Sauce Go Bad In The Fridge?
Keeping tomato sauce in your refrigerator will ensure it lasts longer, prolong its shelf life but not forever. So ultimately yes pizza sauce does go bad in the fridge.
Putting the sauce in your refrigerator basically slows down the spoiling process that all foods encounter but it wont preserve it indefinitely.
How To Tell If Pizza Sauce Is Bad?
If your sauce has been stored for awhile then it is advisable to check it before using. There are a few ways you can check to see how the sauce is fairing and if there is any mold.
Visual – The easiest route is a visual check. Open up your container and have a look at the sauce. If you can see any green mold spores on top of the sauce or also check the lid of your container then the sauce has gone bad.
Smell – Again open up your sauce container. After the visual check give the sauce a good sniff. Any musty aroma means the sauce has turned and mold is forming. Mold is the enemy of food. Food with mold on you should not eat!
How Long Does Spaghetti Sauce Last In The Fridge?
Spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce largely contain very similar ingredients so you can expect them to keep for roughly the same amount of time i.e. the spaghetti sauce will last about 3-5 days in the fridge.
Jar bought spaghetti sauce contains preservatives so it lasts a little longer. Typically about 2 weeks based on the most popular brands. They also tend to add sugar and other things which don’t make them anywhere near as good as homemade spaghetti sauce.
Does Jarred Pasta Sauce Go Bad?
Jarred pasta sauce will go bad given enough time. The expiration date depends on how the jar has been stored and if its been opened or not for the first time. Shop bought pasta sauce in a jar has preservatives in it so you can expect it to last a little longer than home made sauce. So the first thing is find the expiration date on the jar or lid.
When first purchased a jar of pasta sauce will last up to 3 months stored in cool dry place like a kitchen cupboard. Remember though that the jar may have been sat in the store for a few weeks so check the date!
Once opened place the jar in storage next to your milk or frozen peas!
How Long Does Homemade Sauce Last In The Fridge?
It goes without saying the a proper homemade sauce beats a store bought one any day in our book. I tend to batch cook a load and then separate it out into individual portions. I freeze some of the sauce, keep some in the refrigerator and use some straight away.
The sauce I put in the refrigerator tends to last for about 3-5 days.
Conclusion
Homemade pizza and tomato sauce is fantastic food and a great thing for you and your family to eat. You can make pizza and pasta taste amazing. It’s handy to have some either in the refrigerator ready to go or some in the freezer that I can defrost the night before. Just grab some cheese and two or three toppings happy days.
It’s important for you and your families health that you don’t eat any sauce that has gone bad. Knowing how long things will generally lasts in either your refrigerator or your freezer is key.
You might think you should just store everything in the freezer but the disadvantage of that is you can’t use frozen pizza sauce or frozen spaghetti sauce straight away. So the key is to plan ahead a little.
Remember you can always freeze the sauce later. Label storage jars with the date the sauce was made. Store in the refrigerator for at least 3 days and up to 5 days and then if I haven’t used it move it to the freezer where it lasts for up to 3 months.
