Once opened, it is best to store our vegetable and olive oils in the refrigerator. Dean Ornish M.D gathered all the information. How long can you safely store fats and oils? That, of course, depends on storage conditions. At seventy degrees, shortening can maintained for eight months. Butter does not last long at all in the fridge – only two weeks – but can be stored for up to nine months in the freezer (not the freezer of a refrigerator that is usually not so cold). Margarine can also be frozen though some margarine tends to be flaky once thawed. By the same author: Professor Roy Taylor. While I have a government official shelf life of vegetable oils, I do not store oil of more than eight to ten months.

My recommendation is to keep the butter in the freezer for up to nine months and store oils and shortening for eight months at seventy degrees – slightly longer at cooler temperatures. Perhaps more than any other food group, fatty foods should be carefully and conscientiously rotated to maintain proper and healthy. Use what you store and store what you use. Not only do the oils and fats should be carefully stored. Any food containing significant fats, like nuts, crackers, or whole wheat flour is subject to rancidity. Nuts should be stored in a cool, dark, always marked by rancidity before being used. Ideally, the nuts should be stored in metal or metallic – plastic bags are permeable to air and slowly allow oxygen to seep into the package and accelerate the oxidation. We keep our nuts in the freezer – even unopened bags.