Should You Refrigerate Taco Bell Sauce Packets?

If you're even a casual Taco Bell fan, you're probably aware that the restaurant chain has many options when it comes to sauces. Depending on your taste preferences and ability to withstand the spicy kick that comes with some of the options, you can choose from the chain's Diablo, Fire, and Hot condiments, per our heat ranking of Taco Bell sauces. If you're more in the mood for flavor versus heat, there are always the chipotle, avocado ranch, or creamy jalapeño sauces. 

While some Taco Bell lovers find the sauces so flavor and delicious that they buy them bottled, other sauce enthusiasts go a step further: They carry Taco Bell sauce packets home from the restaurant to spice up their cooking, creating a Taco Bell aura from the comfort of home. There's nothing wrong with this practice, but the sauce packets can eventually heap up in your kitchen, depending on your sauce-sourcing behavior and frequency to your local Taco Bell. Before too long, you could be facing a mountain of Taco Bell sauce packets to either use, store, or discard. If you go for option number two, should you refrigerate the packets?

Simply Called Food provides a straightforward answer to whether you need to refrigerate Taco Bell sauce packets: "No, provided you haven't yet opened them." While an unopened, unrefrigerated Taco Bell sauce packet remains in tip-top shape for up to eight months after it's produced, an opened one should be refrigerated and consumed "as soon as possible," within about a week. Wondering if putting your unopened sauce packets in the fridge could help them last even longer? The site says the sauces are designed to be shelf-stable and can resist spoilage for beyond the eight-month period. However, the packaging could begin to break down within this time frame, which refrigeration cannot prevent. 

Still, Taco Bello sauce packets do not last forever, according to Atlas Obscura. "Yes, they spoil. They lose their flavor over time...and do actually have expiration dates," which may not be visible on the packet but are typically designated on the shipping boxes. So, while you don't need to refrigerate your sauce packets, it also won't hurt. Just eat them within an eight-month window — and when you're done, you could even use the Taco Bell sauce packet recycling program to dispose of the packets while earning rewards.