Sunday, July 23, 2006

Condiment package expiration guide

A common site in many office break rooms and desk drawers is a collection of those little condiment packages from fast food restaurants. Since most of them don't have expiration dates, the question is: how long can they be saved and used?

To help you out, here's a little guide with the unrefrigerated shelf lives of some common Heinz condiment packages:

BBQ sauce: 9 months
Chopped onions: 7 months
Cocktail sauce: 9 months
Fat-free mayonnaise: 8 months
Horseradish sauce: 8 months
Hot taco sauce: 4 months
Ketchup: 7 months
Mayonnaise: 8 months
Mild taco sauce: 9 months
Relish: 9 months
Steak sauce: 9 months
Tabasco sauce: 8 months
Tartar sauce: 8 months
Yellow mustard: 9 months

The most common break room condiment package of all may be the Taco Bell hot sauce pack. Taco Bell says their Fire, Hot and Mild sauce packages are best when used in 120 days. They are generally in Taco Bell for no more than 30 days. [via MilwaukeeChannel]

If you're interested, Slashfood has a guide to the shelf lives of condiments you might find in your fridge at home.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

::looks at old cocktail sauce:: .. idunno, hope you guys are right!