How Long Does Olive Oil Last After It's Opened?

A bottle of olive oil can be found in as much as 50% of all home kitchens around the United States, consuming 9% of all olive oil around the globe per year — even more than Greece, at only 7% (via Centra Foods). While some people steer clear of it to avoid the fats, the product is full of flavor and incredibly nutritious, packed full of healthy monounsaturated fats and antioxidants, and linked to preventing heart disease, strokes, cancer, inflammation, Alzheimer's, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, and more, per Healthline.

Whether you're an avid consumer or new to the world of olive oil, you should know how to store it properly. Most oil is stored in darker bottles to prevent it from going rancid, and it's a common piece of cooking advice to store it in a cool and dark environment, notes Olive Oil Times. More than that, though, you should know how long olive oil's shelf life is once opened so bad oil doesn't ruin your favorite dish.

Olive oil may be a pantry staple, but it does have a time limit on how long it will be fresh. It's made from pressed fresh olives, and as such, it will be freshest as close as possible to its harvest date, and less fresh the farther away you get. According to We Olive, once it's been bottled, olive oil is good for 1.5 to 2 years, or 1 to 1.5 years from its harvest date, which is usually labeled on the bottle of higher quality oils.

However, that's assuming the bottle is unopened. Once opened, Brightland.co warns that the product will start to degrade as it's exposed to light and oxygen. The process isn't too rapid, though. In general, opened olive oil has a six-month shelf life once opened. But high quality oil will lose its flavor much faster, so try and buy smaller bottles and use them up within two months.