Hot Sauce Refrigeration: Yay or Nay?

We all see hot sauces sitting on the table at restaurants, but how long have they been there? Do you really need to refrigerate them at home?

 We see this question come up quite often, but since hot sauces have such a wide variety of ingredients, it's not as simple of an answer as it might seem.

Vinegar & Preservatives

Most commercial hot sauces use vinegar, or some other form of acid, and salt as a preservative. In fact, there are very stringent FDA regulations for pH levels and bottling for hot sauces. This tends to make them “shelf stable” for long periods of time. In other words, many high-vinegar sauces should be fine if left out of the fridge for months, if not years. In fact, you’ll notice that many sauces don’t have the ubiquitous “Refrigerate After Opening” message that most condiments do.

Many hot sauce enthusiasts will argue that the flavor and consistency of many hot sauces are better when they’re kept at room temperature. And that’s definitely true. Much like a red wine, room temperature allows the fragrance of a sauce’s peppers and spices shine. If you’ve ever pulled a bottle of Dave’s Insanity out of a fridge, you’ll also find that the sauce has nearly solidified, making it difficult to pour. That's true of many thicker sauces, which tend to behave like molasses after spending some time in the ice box.

Keep in mind, however, that just because a sauce that's left out for long periods of time hasn't necessarily "spoiled", it doesn't mean that it hasn't lost color and flavor, particularly if it's been exposed to extremes of light and heat.

What Should Be Refrigerated

Sauces that have fruit, tomato, or creamy bases, should generally be refrigerated after opening. When in doubt, check the label. If the sauce recommends refrigeration, it's safest to follow that recommendation. Even if these sauces have vinegar or other acids, the high sugar content and other less stable ingredients can lead to funky sauces if they’re left out, particularly in hot conditions.

Oh, and that awesome homemade sauce you or your buddy made should always be refrigerated. Especially fermented sauces, which will tend to continue to “ripen” if they’re not refrigerated. We typically like to use our homemade sauces within a couple of weeks, even when they’re refrigerated.

So What Do We Do?

Generally, we go through sauces very quickly, so they don’t have much of a chance to sit very long. But, if we have some hanging around after a tasting, we’ll generally refrigerate the sauce if we think it’s going to be a week or more before we finish it. We also refrigerate any sauces that have a lot of fruit, have little vinegar, or any that are “creamy”. Remember, refrigeration isn’t going to hurt a sauce, but it can help preserve it.

As mentioned before, even when we do refrigerate a sauce, we make sure we bring them to room temperature before use. We want to get the most out of our sauces, and we definitely want to make sure they pour freely.

Remember, that hot sauces that smell funky, have visible mold, or are starting to bubble, should be tossed, and not consumed. So no matter your preference, refrigerate or not, it never hurts to read labels and keep in mind that safe is always better than sorry.