Taco Bell sauce is a good way to spice up your meal at the restaurant. But a lot of people take extras to use later on at home.

If that’s you, you may want to consider how long the sauce will last. That way, you don’t let any of the packets go to waste.

Will Taco Bell Sauce Expire?

Taco Bell sauce will expire, but it can be hard to tell when. For one, the expiration date isn’t on the sauce packets, but it’s on the box they come in. The restaurant knows when a batch of sauces expires, though.

Even before the sauce expires, it can start to lose its flavor. That packaging material also can only protect the sauce for so long.

How to Tell When Taco Bell Sauce Will Expire

It can be hard to tell for sure when Taco Bell sauce will expire. However, you can do a few things to make an educated guess.

That can help you determine when you need to throw out the sauce before it goes bad. So here are a few things to think about if you like using Taco Bell sauce.

Ask the Restaurant

When you get the sauce packets, ask an employee for the expiration date. They may be able to find the box the packets came in.

If that’s the case, they should be able to look for the date on the side of the box. But not all employees will know that, so it helps to ask the manager.

Unfortunately, this option doesn’t work for packets you’ve had for a while. Odds are, the store no longer has the box, so you’ll have to guess the expiration date another way.

Consider When You Got the Packets

Another option is to think back to when you got the sauce packets in question. If you go to Taco Bell often, you may not know when you got a specific packet.

However, do your best to guess when you took it from Taco Bell. If you do know when you got the packet, you can expect it to last close to a year like many condiment packets.

Now, you may want to play it safe and plan for it to expire a bit earlier. You don’t know how long the packet sat in the store or was in shipping before you grabbed it. Most packets should last about six to nine months or perhaps a bit longer.

Think About the Specific Sauce

You may also want to think about what the sauce is. Some of the spicier sauces may last a bit longer due to the ingredients.

It can also depend on the preservatives in the specific sauce. So maybe one sauce would last a whole month longer than another sauce.

Do You Need to Keep Taco Bell Sauce in the Fridge?

You don’t need to keep Taco Bell sauce packets in the fridge because of the seal. It’s like any condiment that you might buy in a bottle at the store.

However, you probably won’t be able to save a packet that you open. You’ll want to use all of the sauce at once or toss what you don’t use.

How Often Should You Get Rid of Extra Taco Bell Sauce Packets?

Because the sauce expires, you should go through your sauce packets once or twice a year. That way, you can avoid using sauce after it goes bad, but you’ll still have time to use it up.

When you do use your sauce packets, don’t just throw them away. Taco Bell has partnered with TerraCycle to recycle the packets and keep them out of landfills. But you will have to empty out the sauce.

Is It Okay to Take Extra Taco Bell Sauce Packets?

It’s okay to take a few extra Taco Bell sauce packets when you order food there. However, you don’t want to take too many at once and deplete the stock.

The sauce is free for you and other customers, so take a few each time. Then, you can slowly build a collection.

Is There an Expiration Date for Taco Bell Sauce?

Taco Bell sauce expires about a year after the batch was made. But you can figure out that date by asking the restaurant or guessing based on when you grab the sauce. Then, you can keep the packets in your kitchen whenever you want to add some spice to your food.

Top 7 how long do taco bell sauce packets last edited by Top Chef

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