How to Store Fats and Oils for long term

My son in law deep fried a turkey for thanksgiving.  He used peanut oil and it was delicious! The peanut oil was purchased it in a giant 5 gallon box at Wal-Mart. You can find these big boxes of peanut, canola and salad oil at places that sell to restaurant supply, like Costco or Sam’s Club. Since we have several quarts of peanut oil left over, I figure we better learn how to store fats and oils.

 

There are many oils that store well, have multiple uses around the home, and are ideal for cooking, storage and emergency use. Proper storage is the key to extending the expiration date of fats and oils.

Follow these guidelines to store various kinds of fats and oils for basic shelf life.

• -Store fats and oils in their original containers if it is glass or plastic (but see below).
• -Make sure they are in air tight containers.
• -If the container is cardboard, transfer the oil to glass jars. Use a FoodSaver attachment to remove air.
• -Store unopened containers in a cool dark place like the pantry, away from the stove or other appliances.
• -After opening most are fine in the pantry, but to extend their shelf life consider keeping them refrigerated.
• -If they become solid in the fridge, just leave them at room temperature for a while before use and they will liquefy.

It will be important to purchase only what you need and rotate it, because no matter what, oils are considered short term food storage and will not lost longer than 5 years.

The following is a chart with the typical storage time of opened and unopened fats and oils. These are conservative estimates. Regardless of the recommended storage time you should always smell it to verify if your oil has gone rancid.

Avocado oil will last in your pantry, unopened for about 12 months. Once you have opened the bottle you can keep it in the pantry for 6-8 months more, or extend that to 9-12 month by storing it in the ridge after opening. So, it is beneficial to store avocado oil in the fridge after opening. Not so much with canola oil, it won’t extend the shelf life with refrigeration. Some oils, like grape seed, should only be stored in the fridge.

Type of Fat or Oil	Unopened lasts for	Once opened	OR fridge storage
Avocado Oil	9-12 months/pantry	6-8 months / pantry	9-12 months /fridge
Butter	12 months / freezer	–	3 months / fridge
Canola Oil	2 years / pantry	1 year / pantry	1 year / fridge
Coconut Oil	1 year / pantry	1 year / pantry	1 year / fridge
Corn Oil	1 year / pantry	1 year / pantry	1 year / fridge
Extra Virgin Olive EVOO	2-3 years / pantry	2 years / pantry	–
Ghee	5 years / pantry	1 year / pantry	–
Grape Seed Oil	6 months / fridge	–	6 months / fridge
Hazelnut Oil	1 year / pantry	3 months / pantry	12 months / fridge
Lard (pork fat)	5 years / pantry	1 year / pantry	–
Macadamia  Nut	2-3 years / fridge	–	2-3 years / fridge
Peanut Oil	3 years / pantry	2 years / pantry	2 years / fridge
Sesame Oil	2 years / fridge	–	2 years / fridge
Safflower Oil	2 years / pantry	1 year / pantry	1-2 years / fridge
Spray Oil in can	2 years / pantry	2 years / pantry	–
Sunflower Oil	2 years / pantry	1 year / pantry	1-2 years / fridge
Tallow (beef fat)	3 years / pantry	–	1-2 years / fridge
Vegetable Oil	1 year / pantry	1 year / pantry	–
Vegetable Shortening	5 years / pantry	1 year / pantry	–
Walnut Oil	1 year / pantry	3-4 months / pantry	6-8 months / fridge

Fats and oils are and important part of your food storage plan. To learn more about making and storing the “long term” fats and oils (those that last up to 5 years) try these excellent posts –

How to render lard in a crockpot from Mommypotamus. Lard is pork fat, rendered down to remove the solids.

How to make ghee from Every Day Maven.  Ghee is essentially clarified butter that is cooked a bit longer until the clarified butter is golden and the milk solids at the bottom are toasted.

How to render beef tallow from Happy Money Saver, who has a great idea to pour the oil into ice cube trays and then use individually as needed.

You may also like these posts from PreparednessMama

Using Cooking Fats in your storage  and Make Your Own Butter in a jar.

See all the “How Do I Store That?” posts