How Long Cooked Shrimp Lasts In The Fridge Before It Needs To Be Tossed Out

For seafood lovers, there's always room at the table for a tasty shrimp salad at a summer barbecue or a spicy shrimp scampi around the holidays. When they're well-prepared, they tend to get devoured quickly, which is fantastic because cooked shrimp has a very limited shelf life. The minute you can tell it's ready to eat, the clock starts ticking, and you're just days away from having to throw it out if it isn't consumed.

When shrimp has been cooked properly and cooled within two hours of preparation, it will only last in the fridge for three to four days. That timeframe is especially crucial to remember for folks who like to assemble dishes like shrimp salad ahead of time when they're attending a get-together. Making it a day or two beforehand should be fine, but storing it in the fridge longer than that is playing with fire.

Shellfish poisoning can be severe and sometimes even fatal. Consuming cooked shrimp that has passed its prime can lead to contracting foodborne illnesses such as norovirus, hepatitis A, and variants of vibrio. Symptoms like headaches, nausea, diarrhea, and fever aren't things people are hoping to experience after a lovely seafood meal. Aside from purchasing a dependable product and fully cooking the shrimp, making sure it doesn't sit around too long in the fridge is the best method to prevent folks from learning the hard way that shellfish poisoning is no joke.

It can be a bit confusing when people say something like cooked shrimp lasts "between three and four days." Well, which is it? The truth is that it can depend on several factors, including how long the cooked shrimp had been sitting at room temperature before it was tossed in the fridge. But one way to maximize its shelf life is by storing it correctly.

Cooked shrimp should be stored in an airtight container toward the back of the unit, where temperatures tend to remain the coldest. If you want to make sure you don't forget about it within four days, you can stash it closer to the front, but you're gambling at that point. Storing cooked shrimp in the door of the fridge is a bad idea because that's where temperature swings are most likely to occur.

It won't be hard to tell when it's gone bad. Shrimp that's unsafe to eat will often start to smell like ammonia. If it has an extra fishy or sour aroma, that's another sign it's time to toss it. Sliminess and fading color are also indications that the seafood could make you sick.

If you're worried you won't be able to finish it up within four days, freezing cooked shrimp is an option. Storing it in an airtight container in the back of your freezer will extend the shelf life to about three months. However, freezing and thawing shrimp won't do wonders for the texture and overall quality, so it's best to make small batches that you're sure will be eaten quickly.