Are Those Leftover Sauce Packets You Saved Still Good?

Whether it's a drawer or container, we all have a place for the leftover sauce packets that made the journey along with our takeout orders. So when the ketchup bottle is empty and your fries are begging for some sweet dipping sauce, you might reach for that old packet. But is the sauce safe to eat after so long?

Well it all depends on the sauce packets themselves and how you choose to store them. Sauce packets stored at the right temperature have a better chance of being safe to use, but a half-used, open packet is likely not the best idea. By design, that opened sauce packet isn't meant to be held onto forever, but pouch-style sauce packets are messy to begin with. After a while you might even lose track of when those sauce packets entered your life in the first place.

Unlike most other food products you have around your house, sauce packets don't generally have an expiration or "use by" date printed on them. That means there's no perfect answer for whether your leftover sauce packets are still good. On the bright side, there are some ways to help you make a judgement call on whether or not to toss your sauce.

Storing unopened sauce packets in a cool, dry, and possibly airtight space can help them last up to a year. At the same time, you should consider what type of sauce is in the packet. For example, shelf-stable items like honey or sugar will be good to eat longer than something with eggs in it, like mayonnaise.

From here, you have to trust your senses. If the sauce packet smells rancid or the sauce itself has a weird texture to it, just throw it out. If you're even a little suspicious about the taste of the sauce or look of the packet material, it's better to be safe and get rid of the sauce. Even if you determine the sauce packet looks fine, you should never open a sauce packet with your teeth because who knows where it's been since you first tossed it in the drawer. 

Choosing whether or not to keep a sauce packet isn't just about food safety, though it is most important; It's also about maintaining flavor. Small packets are meant to be used fairly quickly, so after a couple months the sauce might lose flavor. If you feel like completely decluttering and starting your sauce packet collection from scratch, you could always blend all your leftover sauce packets into a monster sauce, but we take no responsibility for how that ends up tasting.