[rabidstoat]

Usually I buy fresh-ground peanut butter in single-sandwich serving sizes, since I only eat a PB&J sandwich once or twice a month. But being two lazy to drive to Harry's Farmer Market, I went with Smucker's Natural Peanut Butter today.

My question is: how long will the jar last when stored in the fridge after opening? Its only two ingredients are peanuts and a bit of salt, so it's the type of natural peanut butter with no sugar, where the oil separates out so you need to stir it. And you refrigerate it after opening.

But how long will it last before going bad? And how can I tell when it's gone bad?

[Puncezilla]

It should have a best before date on it. I buy natural PB and I'v never had any go bad on me even after the BB date. If it was bad it would taste/ smell rancid.

[nelie]

It should smell if it goes bad but I've never refrigerated natural peanut butter, I just keep it out but we go through a jar a month.

[jtammy]

Hmmm, I eat natural peanut butter fast enough that I'm really not sure. The longest that it has probably been in my fridge is about two months. It still smells fine in that length of time. A while back, DH brought home some Smuckers from the store that he hadn't realized was a month or so past the sell by date. It was definitely rancid. You could smell that the peanuts were old. It had been unopened, and unrefrigerated, so maybe it would last a little longer if refrigerated.

[ennay]

Make sure you STIR before you refrigerate...lol. My MIL forgot and then its hard to stir! It is a lot easier to stir if you keep it in your cupboard upside down for a couple days first to get the oil to the bottom

It lasts a long long time. We buy the biggest jar of Adams and sometimes we go through it fast and sometimes it is months and we have never had it go bad. dh is the only one who eats it and he goes in spurts. He doesnt eat pb sandwiches, only a spoonful as a quick snack now and then.

Nelie- how do you not refrigerate it? Not for the spoilage, but it will just keep separating wont it? We stir it well once and then store the jar upside down in the fridge.

[nelie]

ennay,

I've never had a problem with it reseparating. I store the unopened jars upside down and then when we open one, we stir it and it doesn't seem to separate. We buy Trader Joe's brand.

[BlueToBlue]

I've had a jar in the fridge for probably 6 months now, maybe longer, and I just had some of it yesterday and it was fine.