Does Hot Sauce Go Bad?

One question I get asked alot is shelf life of hot sauces.  Chile peppers have been used throughout time to preserve food, and therefore, between the chile peppers and vinegar that is the "liquid" in today’s hot sauces should hold it’s freshness for a long time.

Many hot sauce collectors will not keep their sauces in the refrigerator.  I suggest to customers that if the sauce is pepper based, and has no fruit or vegetables in it, will keep for a long time on the table.  It should keep almost forever in a refrigerator.  However, if the sauce has fruit or vegetables or ingredients beyond vinegar, garlic and peppers, once opened should be refrigerated.  If taken care of, these sauces should last several months if not a year once opened.

You probably won’t be surprised to hear, that if you came to my house and opened my refrigerator, you would be met with a door full of hot sauces.  And many of them are several years old (hey, a girl can only eat so much hot sauce a week!)…..and I wouldn’t think of throwing any of them out!