Are you aware that nuts can “go bad?” If you’re storing them in your cupboard or pantry, you’ll want to read on. The deal is, how they’re stored matters a lot. The goal is to ensure they always taste fresh.

Keeping nuts always fresh means you NEVER store them at room temperature. Yes, you’ll find them on the supermarket shelves lingering at room temperature, but that’s so wrong—period. We the consumers, always run the risk of bringing home rancid nuts because of this practice.

Once you open the package, it’s easy to tell if your nuts are rancid—rancid nuts have a number of signs, including:

• SMELL: rancidity gives off an unpleasant odor that's sour, moldy, paint-like, or plastic-like. Rancid nuts also have a strong chemical smell.


• TEXTURE: rancid nuts tend to be soft—they’ve lost their crunch. They may also look shriveled, wrinkled, or dried out.


• TASTE: rancid nuts typically taste bitter, sour, cheesy, or vomit-like.

Avoiding rancidity is easy—just store them in the refrigerator. Cool temperatures keep the nuts’ unsaturated fats from breaking down, ultimately slowing down spoilage. And they’ll last even longer when stored in the freezer.

But don't just throw the nuts in the fridge in whatever packaging you bought them in. Airtight glass jars are your best bet. And if you bought nuts in bulk, be sure to transfer them to airtight containers before freezing. Nuts stored properly in the fridge can last up to 6 months, and up to a year in the freezer.

Lastly, know that some nuts will spoil faster than others. This is because nuts have a wide range of fat content. Nuts with a lower fat content last longer. This group includes: Almonds, walnuts, and pistachios. And nuts higher in fat are quicker to spoil. Macadamia nuts, pine nuts, cashews, and Brazil nuts will go rancid more quickly.

We all know what good snacks fresh-tasting nuts are, whether eating out of hand or mixing them with other things. Granolas and trail mixes using nuts are loved because of how flavorful and satiating they are. And nuts are versatile. Chopped fine and mixed with oats and coconut, they make a superb pie crust, for instance. One of our favorite nut-oriented snacks is a pitted Medjool date stuffed with an almond.

With the cost of groceries continuing to go up, it makes good sense to take good care of our food once we get it home. So keep your assortment of nuts cool and there’ll be no danger of them going bad and needing to be tossed.

I’ll conclude with a terrific recipe for the above-mentioned nutty pie crust. It’s a great alternative to the traditional graham cracker crust!




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    Alice Osborne
    DVO Newsletter Contributor since 2006
    Email the author! alice@dvo.com