ONIONS · IN THE PANTRY
3–8 weeks
Three weeks safely, eight or more in the right spot. Dry pungent onions store for six to nine months commercially at near-freezing with low humidity — and it is the low humidity that a refrigerator cannot give you. UC Davis notes fridge humidity causes sprouting and rot, so the cupboard beats the crisper here.
Dry, dark, and with air moving. A sealed bag is worse than an open bowl.
These are quality windows drawn from published UC Davis storage research — an estimate of how long produce stays good, not a safety date. If the package carries a printed use-by date, that date governs.
ALSO SOLD AS onion · yellow onion · red onion · white onion · sweet onion · shallot · shallots
By storage method
- Cool, dark pantry
- 3–8 weeks
- In the refrigerator
- Not recommended
Near the end of the window?
A soft spot can be cut away and the rest of the onion used. Onions that have sprouted are still fine to cook — the sprout is edible, just bitter. Cut onions are a much shorter proposition than whole ones and belong in the fridge once opened.
SOURCES
- UC Davis: dry pungent onions store 6-9 months at 0°C with low RH commercially; at home kept dry in a cool ventilated pantry (fridge humidity causes sprouting/rot). Conservative home 3-8+ weeks. Haircut 3 d.
- UC Davis Postharvest Technology Center, Fresh Produce Storage & Shelf-Life recommendations (postharvest.ucdavis.edu).
Ranges are as published. Treat the short end as your real window — grocery produce is already days past harvest, and a cooked dish starts its clock at the stove.
Looking up your groceries one at a time is a hobby. A bad one.
Savery scans your grocery receipt and tracks these windows for everything you bought at once. The spinach, the strawberries, the milk you forgot about — all on one shelf.