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Being mostly made of salt, I often used soy sauce well beyond (as in "two years and more") its expiration date without ever having a problem. Is that a bad idea, and did I actually take some health risks doing so?

Ching Chong
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Dakatine
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3 Answers3

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Still tasty implicitly says that the sauce stays indefinitely technically edible. The expiration date is only for quality purposes. I think the sauce probably doesn't have an expiration date but rather a "Best By" or "Best if Used By" date.

  • Storage time shown is for best quality only — after that, the sauce's texture, color or flavor may change, but in most cases, it will still be safe to consume if it has been stored properly.
  • If sauce develops an off odor, flavor or appearance, it should be discarded for quality purposes.
Ching Chong
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  • As per your answer, it is referring to peak quality. All soy sauces I have ever seen have a "best by" date rather than an expiration date. – Cindy Jun 25 '15 at 13:08
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    @Cindy: Thank you for your comment. I edited my post. It's a language thing: In Germany we only have a "Use by" date (often labeled on perishable food like raw meat) and a "expiration date" which both means "best by" (only for quality purposes) and "use by plus some days" (on e.g. cold cuts). – Ching Chong Jun 25 '15 at 13:16
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    @ChingChong, I must disagree with your comment - There is a "Verbrauchsdatum / zu verbrauchen bis" date which can be found on hamburger meat or chicken, for example and the much more common "Mindesthaltbarkeitsdatum / mindestens haltbar bis", the former being an equivalent of a "use by" the latter of "best before". With the recent discussions on food waste here in G. various organisations have pointed out the common misconception of the Mindesthaltbarkeitsdatum being an expiry date. See [Wikipedia](https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindesthaltbarkeitsdatum) for details. – Stephie Jun 25 '15 at 20:20
  • @Stephie I thought "zu verbrauchen bis" = "use by" and "mindestens haltbar bis" which means *both* "best by" and not-so-urgent "use by". I don't have pre-packaged ham (Kochschinken) right now in handy but I am very certain that there is a "Mindeshaltbarkeitsdatum" printed on it and Kochschinken is definetely not a product that has only a "best by" date. It is safe to consume it some days (or say a week) after the Mindeshaltbarkeitsdatum but I am sure that I can't safely consume it after two years storage in the fridge. – Ching Chong Jun 25 '15 at 20:46
  • @ChingChong Mindesthaltbarkeit doesn't say *anything* about how long *after* the date the item will be *safe* to consume. Compare sliced toast (which may be moldy one or two days after) to the soy sauce from this question. There is no leeway with "zu verbrauchen bis" - may I suggest checking the labels on chicken or hamburger at your grocery store? (Also note, hamburger meat (AE) is not ham, but minced meat (BE, not to be confused with mincemeat), in German "Hackfleisch") – Stephie Jun 25 '15 at 21:01
  • @Stephie I'm agreeing with you respective the definitions of Mindesthaltbarkeit and "zu verbrauchen bis". The only problem is that you can't translate "Mindesthalbarkeitsdatum" to "best by" because in my opinion "best by" states that that certain foodstuff stays indefinitely edible in terms of not being harmful (like canned food, chocolate, dry foodstuffs). Which is not the case with Kochschinken. – Ching Chong Jun 25 '15 at 21:12
  • An Anecdote: One thing I found strange is that fresh raw meat at a large local groceries store is (was?) labeled with "Mindestens haltbar bis ... bei Lagerung bis +8°C" ("Expirantion date: ... if stored at less than 8°C") which makes absolutely no sense. The discounter next to it has "Zu verbrauchen bis ... bei Lagerung bei -2° bis +4°C". ("Use by ... if stored at -2°C to 4°C") – Ching Chong Jun 25 '15 at 21:20
  • Looks like the stuff relies on lactic acid rather than vinegar to keep the pH down near 4.8: http://www.kikkomanusa.com/foodmanufacturers/soysaucebasics/characterizingsoysauce.php Lactate won't evaporate like vinegar, so that shouldn't cause trouble over time. – Wayfaring Stranger Jun 25 '15 at 21:52
  • does this include white soy sauce as well? – c.. Sep 04 '16 at 00:49
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    @c.. I'd say yes. [Serious eats](http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/03/do-you-know-your-soy-sauces-japanese-chinese-indonesian-differences.html) says that white soy sauce is brewed by already brewed soy sauce as a base instead of normal saltwater brine. Both have a similar salinity. I personally use the rule: if it has a very long shelf life like 5 years, it'll be edible in another 5 years as well (albeit not necessarily palatable). – Ching Chong Mar 24 '17 at 01:33
  • Another Anecdote: This summer, when cleaning out the pantry, we found a partially used gallon sized can of Soy sauce dated May 2002. When we opened it, it looked, smelled and eventually (it took a double dare) tasted fine. We discarded it only because we had no need for that much soy sauce. – B540Glenn Nov 13 '18 at 18:02
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It depends. Are you talking tamari, shoyu or western soy sauce? Good tamari will improve with age (which is why I buy it in 5gal quantities even though I use far less than a gal/year). The same is probably true of shoyu as well, but westeren soy sauce has additional ingredients which may affect shelf life.

hildred
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Doesn't seem like it to me. I have a bottle in my cupboard from 1997 and it's still fine on the (very) rare occasion when I actually put any on my rice.

Nicholas Shanks
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    why are we beating up this answer? So it is a little light on sources and details. It is not by any measure wrong. – hildred Jun 25 '15 at 19:23
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    @hildred Well, one person (votes are anonymous, so no idea who) voted down. That's hardly beating up the answer. I'd guess the reason why is the downvoter feels the answer is noise, adding nothing beyond what's in the other, earlier answer. (Hover over the arrow for the tooltip: "this answer is not useful". Noise is not useful.) – derobert Jun 25 '15 at 20:51
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    @hildred I just want to emphasize what derobert said: please don't take downvotes, especially single ones, as attacks. Downvotes are just as important as upvotes, if not more, for helping ensure that the most useful, helpful answers float to the top. If you see a downvoted answer that you think is useful, you can always upvote, and even add a comment explaining why you think the answer is good. – Cascabel Jun 25 '15 at 22:18
  • @derobert, if personal experience is noise... – hildred Jun 25 '15 at 22:24
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    I'm not the downvoter, but . . . this answer doesn't seem to add any information that's not already in the original question. – ruakh Jun 26 '15 at 06:41
  • I could write it up as a scientific paper and publish it on arXiv.org — all human knowledge is the sum of personal experiences. – Nicholas Shanks Jun 26 '15 at 08:56
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    @hildred Actually, most answers that are purely anecdotal are generally frown upon especially in regards to food safety. – Jay Aug 07 '15 at 18:44