Here's How Long Cream Cheese Lasts After Opening

If cream cheese slathered all over a bagel (with a really big mug of coffee) doesn't get you excited for breakfast, truly nothing will. Cream cheese is so lightly tangy and savory, a cool foil against the hot toastiness of breakfast bread, but it's also quite versatile, and can be used to thicken soups and pasta sauces, in this chili cheese dip, plus it has many uses in baking (there are methods for quickly softening it if you need them). However, if you don't use it all up in one go, there is a window of time you have to finish it before it can start to go bad.

Fortunately, that window isn't super limited. You have about two weeks to eat up or use up your leftover cream cheese, provided it stays in the refrigerator under 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and it isn't left out on the counter for longer than two hours at a time (since this puts it at increased risk of rapid bacterial growth). Just use it, reseal it, then immediately put it back in the fridge, and it should be good to eat for a few weeks.

You can keep your cream cheese in the deli drawer with your other cheeses, or place it on a middle shelf near the back. Cream cheese typically comes packaged one of two ways: in a plastic tub with a lid, or in a foil wrapper, with a box. When it comes packaged in a plastic tub, you can just replace the lid securely to form an airtight seal and place it in your fridge. Easy peasy.

However, if you have purchased the foil wrapper kind, you have a few options for resealing it. You can just fold the foil down and put it back in its box, though this doesn't create the tightest seal (so only choose this method if you're sure you're going to be using the cream cheese within a few days). To really make your cream cheese last, fold the foil back down around the block, but then place in a zip top bag, pushing as much air out as possible before sealing it.

Cream cheese can also be frozen to extend its life, though the texture will change once it's thawed. Thus, it's best to use thawed cream cheese in baking or sauces. It will last indefinitely in the freezer, but for the best quality, it should be thawed and consumed within two months.