Adding some spices and condiments to a food may improve the taste. And, if you are dealing with some Asian cuisine, you have most probably included soy sauce for having a perfect tang from your meal. Due to the rich dark quality and salty, soy sauce is used as topping in most of the East Asian foods.
However, if you use soy sauce occasionally but have a good amount of this sauce in your kitchen, then there is one concern that may arise in your mind- Does soy sauce become spoiled in due course? You know that in most of the cases, when any food is left for a long time, there is a tendency of spoilage. So, can the same thing be said in case of soy sauce?
There are some people, who argue that this sauce cannot go bad in any way; mainly because of the extremely amount of salt, soya sauce may have longer shelf life than that of other soy-based products. However, their claim is not completely true because there are some chances that soy sauce may become rotten, if it is not utilized within some years after your purchase.
Soy sauce has lots of sodium; this kind of environment may not be a good site for microbes to grow. For this reason, it can be highly safe to use soy sauce after lots of years but it will not basically be of good quality. So, let’s now learn about the storage of soy sauce and the possible shelf life.
Soy sauce in fridge or pantry?
If the container of your soy sauce remains sealed, pantry is perhaps the most excellent site for storing it as there are both dry and cool surroundings. As soon as the container is untied, you may store this in your pantry, as it is already said, or move it into the refrigerator. Thus, while you make use of sauce within some months, its storage within the pantry is enough.
However, if you want to store your sauce for a much longer time period, you think of keeping it inside the freezer. In this manner, you may keep up the best quality for extensive time. After unwrapping up your soy sauce bottle, you must not forget to seal it tightly. Thus, any impurity will not be competent to get some way into your sauce.
At this point, there are some arguments that you have to note. Some people want to refrigerate the sauce after opening. On the other hand, if you visit any Chinese restaurant, you may ask question to a chef about the preservation of soy sauce. You will obviously learn that the chef simply place the bottles of their soy sauce on the tables. Like soy sauce, there are few sauces, which do not need refrigeration, for example, fish sauce, rice vinegar, chili oil.
On the other hand, the sauces that need refrigeration are plum sauce, oyster sauce and hoisin sauce.
Best by date and shelf life
When you observe the label on our soy sauce container, you will possibly find a date with the- best by tag. Only if the bottle is in tied condition, it is stated that its excellence may remain intact for almost 3 years. While you have opened the packet, the sauce is likely to be delicious for nearly one or two years (obviously, it depends on how long the sauce has been stored prior to untying). Thus, if the specified date on tag is not radically shorter, you may abide by the date. When this stated time period is over, your soy sauce may go bad (if stored rightly); however, its level of quality may not great. The quality slowly deteriorates in due course.
How to determine the bad soy sauce?
While the soy sauce container has not been stored with its lid on the tap, some impurities may get the chance to access the bottle; as a result, mold will grow in your bottle. It is possibly the only means to ensure the safety of your sauce. If soy sauce bottle was not preserved well, or if you are not certain of how this was once stored, then there’re some things that you may do for ensuring the freshness of the sauce. In general, you need to search for the impurities and the warnings of mold in condiment.
To check whether your soy sauce has become rotten, you may test out the flavor and color of this condiment. The sauce may turn out to be darker in color as well as stronger in aroma or flavor in due course because changes happen because of the process of oxidation.
Peak flavor may be noticed while you have opened the container for the first time. If mold grows, then your sauce should be thrown away.
What affects the storage of soy sauce?
Soy sauce is prepared by blending wheat, soybeans, water and salt that are exposed to a procedure for brewing, fermentation, pasteurization and stabilization of the ultimate product. The usual fermentation may take some months; thus, be careful of a few brands, which use chemicals in order to accelerate the process. In fact, storage times of soy sauce may depend on how the product has been processed. Naturally fermented and brewed soy sauce may start tasting rotten before your chemically treated sauces. Some Japanese sauce is excellent for a period, which has not crossed best-by date. However, you should try to keep your soy sauce at a stable temperature.
Thus, now, it can be concluded that soy sauce may not get rotten very easily. However, it will surely become rancid, when you like to utilize it for an extensive time period. You may better try to use it with two to three years.
Lastly, it is to be said that when you are suffering from any celiac disorder, you must plan to purchase such soy sauce, which is free from gluten. And it is one of the recommendations for buying soy sauce.