If you’ve ever been puzzled by the taste of your final dish — muted, barely-there flavors instead of a punchy, party-in-your-mouth kind of experience — stale spices might be to blame.
Spices are pantry powerhouses that have the potential to take your culinary creations from one-note to wow-worthy. But using fresh, potent spices is the key to building depth and complexity of flavor. From whole and ground spices to dried herbs and fragrant spice blends like ras el hanout and za’atar, keeping your collection up-to-date is a must for successful cooking.
So exactly how long do spices last, and when is it time to toss the long-forgotten jar buried in your drawer (that you used for that one recipe from who-knows-when)? We asked three experts all your most pressing questions about proper spice storage.
What’s the shelf life of spices?
Whole spices
“You should use up your whole spices within roughly two years of purchasing them, and you should always look for harvest dates on your spices,” says Sana Javeri Kadri, CEO and founder of spice company Diaspora Co. Though spices won’t technically spoil or become unsafe to consume, packaged spices can sit in warehouses or grocery stores for years before they’re cracked open for home use.
What if your spices don’t have a printed harvest or best-before date? Lior Lev Sercarz, chef and owner of the global spice brand La Boîte, recommends marking the date of purchase (or the last time you checked on its freshness) on a piece of tape.
Ground spices
Ground spices have a shorter shelf life than their whole counterparts, and are best used within a year of opening them. However, it’s always better to use them up sooner for the most concentrated flavor experience. “Once [a spice] is ground, it has lost a lot of its flavor,” says Kadri. “There’s more surface area, which means more chances for the oils to move into the air.”
To gauge the freshness of ground spices, Ori Zohar, co-founder and co-CEO of single-origin spice company Burlap & Barrel, advises this three-sense test.
- Sight: Take a look at the spices. Are they vibrant and bright or has the color faded?
- Smell: Give it a sniff. Is the aroma strong and intense?
- Taste: Put a little on your tongue. Does it transport you to the farms and fields, or is it tasteless?
If your spice is dull in color, muted in aroma, or bland in flavor, it’s likely past its prime.
Dried herbs
“Dried herbs — which are technically plant leaves — tend to have the shortest shelf life, so don’t hold onto your Scarborough Fair spices,” says Zohar. Use up dried herbs like parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme before the one-year mark and preferably within months of opening for the best flavor. Stumped on ideas? Apply your stash to a delicious roast chicken or baked goat cheese.
Spice blends
From five-spice powder to garam masala, spice blends add incredible depth to a variety of dishes (you can even make your own blend). “We see that people tend to use their spice blends faster than they would a single jar of spices, since they’re already balanced and ready to use for cooking,” says Zohar. Use your favorite blends within a year of purchase as a general guideline, but don’t be surprised if you blitz through them faster than standalone spices.
| Type of spice | Shelf life |
| Whole spices | 2 years |
| Ground spices | 1 year |
| Dried herbs | A few months to 1 year |
| Spice blends | 1 year |
How to store spices so they last
Keep spices in airtight containers away from heat, light, and humidity to maximize their shelf life and help retain their flavors and aromas. “A cool, dry, dark place like a cupboard or a pantry is great,” says Kadri. Refrain from storing your spices in the fridge or freezer, which “introduces a lot of water content which could spoil the spice,” says Sercarz.
Making it easy to reach for your spices — instead of letting them languish in a cupboard or drawer — is arguably just as important as proper storage (the goal is to use them, after all!). To that end, Zohar offers a somewhat unorthodox hack:
“Every week, take three to five jars of spices and put them right next to…wherever you’re preparing your food. This is the opposite of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ — it will get you cooking with a broader variety of spices, experimenting with flavors, and will get you to rotate through your spice collection.”
Sercarz recommends taking stock of your spices on a monthly basis. Use your findings as a launch point for inspiring your next meal, or challenging yourself to become a better cook.
How to revive old spices
Before you conduct a complete overhaul of your spice rack, try these tricks to coax out any remaining flavors from past-peak spices. “If they’re whole, you can toast them and bring them back to life,” Sercarz says. “If they’re ground, you can bloom them in oil or another type of fat.” Kadri adds: “[The] process of sizzling them wakes up whatever flavor compounds…are left in the spices.”
However, if a spice no longer has a discernible taste or smell, it’s time to retire it from your cooking arsenal. Otherwise “you’re just adding dust to your food,” says Sercarz.
Before you toss them in the can, consider creative, non-culinary ways to repurpose old spices: Zohar suggests adding them to homemade candles and soaps or using spices like cloves, cinnamon, and chile powder as natural pest repellants.
Where to buy spices
Whenever possible, invest in high-quality spices from a company with reputable sourcing practices, store spices properly, and use them often (and soon after opening) while their flavors are most vibrant and dynamic. Some of our favorites include Burlap & Barrel, Diaspora Co., La Boîte, and Spicewalla.
Similar to thoughtfully selecting produce and proteins for a recipe, Sercarz also underscores the importance of “perceiving spices as an ingredient [and] not an afterthought.” This shift in philosophy is bound to take you from “How long have I had this?” to “What else can I create with this?” — all while minimizing waste.