Does BBQ Sauce Need To Be Refrigerated? 

Chances are you’ve seen bottles of barbecue sauce on picnic tables or in a restaurant.  But does it need to be refrigerated?

Most barbecue sauces you buy in a store are pretty shelf stable.  They don’t need to be refrigerated until they’re opened. You can keep them in the refrigerator if you want, but unless it says “refrigerate after opening,” you likely don’t need to.

Homemade barbecue sauce may be a different story, unless you’re sure about the ingredients’ PH level (a rating that determines shelf stability.)  To be safe, they should be refrigerated whenever you’re not using them to avoid spoilage.

About Barbecue Sauce

Barbecue sauce comes in many varieties, with tomato and without, some vinegar or a lot of vinegar, and a creative collection of spices. Brown sugar and molasses are also common.

Since sugars and salts are preservatives, with the right balance, using tomato paste or ketchup, it can be made shelf-stable.

Be careful, though. Without testing the PH, as I mentioned above, don’t assume it’s stable.

How Long Can Barbecue Sauce Sit Out?

Assuming your homemade sauce isn’t quite shelf-stable, how long can you afford to leave it out before putting it in the refrigerator?

The short answer is only around 2 hours.

How To Tell If BBQ Sauce Has Gone Bad

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if a barbecue sauce has gone bad. Here are some things to check:

• Are there any white spots or patches visible?
  This means mold has started to grow and the sauce should be discarded.

• Does the sauce smell bad?
  I know that sounds obvious, but the point is that it’s a good idea to smell it before eating it if you’re unsure.

One note:  It’s a normal phenomenon for barbecue sauce to darken in color a little after a while.  That’s the sugar reacting.

Freezing BBQ Sauce 

Barbecue sauce usually keeps well in the freezer.  If you want to prolong the life of your sauce that way, it’s an option.

Store in a freezer-safe container, or better yet vacuum pack it, and store for 6-12 months.

Bottling Your Own Sauce

If you don’t want to freeze it, you may consider canning it.

For our sauce at Alice’s Smokehouse, we bottled it ourselves since we sold it. Part of that process was verifying the PH. We used our own PH tester to spot-test it as we developed sauces, but for final verification, we sent samples out to a food testing lab. Testing labs aren’t hard to find, are usually free, and commonly used for restaurants and serious home canners alike. If you consider canning anything you intend to give your friends, I highly recommend you use one also. Food poisoning is nothing to take risks with.

I’ve read quite a few resources on the subject of home and professional canning and here are some ones I found useful:

It’s also important to have some basic and durable canning tools. Stainless steel is your friend here. Avoid the plastics.

For more official information of canning, go take a look at this link.

Closing Thoughts

While there’s technically no need to refrigerate an unopened bottle of store-bought barbecue sauce, doing so can help it last longer. 

Always refrigerate any home-made sauce, just to be sure.

Stay safe