Why refrigerate soy sauce

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Sign up for PureWow to get more daily discoveries sent straight to your inbox. Thanks for Sharing! Now like us on Facebook. Want more where that came from? By Katherine Gillen Sep. Follow PureWow on Pinterest. SHARE Furthermore, well-known producers like Kikkoman and Kamada recommend refrigerating their soy sauces after opening for best quality retention. That said, nothing that bad should happen if you leave your soy sauce unrefrigerated.

All an unopened bottle of soy sauce needs is a cool and dry area, like a kitchen cupboard or a shelf in the pantry. Once you open the bottle, no matter if you refrigerate it or not, you should keep it sealed tightly when not in use. Last, if you want to have room-temperature soy sauce readily available, but also care about its quality, consider decanting it. Keep your main bottle in the fridge, and store a smaller container that holds enough soy sauce for a couple of weeks or so at room temperature.

Otherwise, stick the bottle in the refrigerator and be done with it. You can always pour a couple of tablespoons and wait 15 minutes until the condiment reaches ambient temperature. It tasted alright, so I went ahead and used it but started wondering just how long soy sauce lasts without refrigeration. So does soy sauce have to be refrigerated after opening? No, soy sauce does not have to be refrigerated after opening. Even though the product labels all say to refrigerate after opening, soy sauce contains sufficient amounts of salt, which is a natural preservative and is fermented , which makes soy sauce safe to leave unrefrigerated after opening.

However, the smell, taste, and color will remain unchanged for an extended period of time if refrigerated. Also, I must add that if not refrigerated, soy sauce should be kept in a cool, dry area such as a pantry or cabinet. Soy sauce should be at its peak condition for at least one year after opening if unrefrigerated and two years if refrigerated. Here is the shelf life of a few common types of soy sauce:.

How long soy sauce lasts depends on many things, including the ingredients, how it was processed, and how it is stored, before and after the bottle is opened.

Here are recommendations for how long soy sauce lasts after opening with refrigeration and without:. By refrigerating the sauce, the flavor and quality will remain at their peak for a longer period.

The regular type of soy sauce is the most reliable as far as maintaining its freshness, taste, and overall appearance. The addition to or deletion from those four key ingredients and a change in the fermentation process make other types of soy sauce not so reliable and could allow them to lose their freshness faster. The answer here would be to refrigerate all other types of soy sauce after opening to keep them fresh longer.

Left on the shelf out of the fridge, it can last for about a year. Soy sauce is cheap enough that if you forget to store it properly and it was opened at some point then you can just replace it without much problem.

Does soy sauce have to be refrigerated once opened? Some people use their soy sauce very slowly, only using a dash here and there. If you store it in the fridge once opened, though, the soy sauce can last for anywhere from two to three years. Some soy sauce brands say to keep the condiment in a cool place, and the top brand Kikkoman is one of them with that advisory. Does Kikkoman soy sauce have to be refrigerated? Some say it loses its flavour and others say it is just fine to stay out of the fridge.

What is the answer, though? The fermentation not only makes the soy sauce viable for a very long time but also keeps the flavour intact, so it will be okay to eat and taste like it should as well.