Should You Refrigerate Fresh Mozzarella? (2024)

FAQs

Should You Refrigerate Fresh Mozzarella? ›

If your kitchen is cool, and you bought your mozzarella in a tub of brine, you can probably leave it out overnight without a problem, as long as the cheese is well submerged. For longer storage, you'll need the fridge—mozzarella has too much water and not enough salt or acid to stay fresh for long.

The U.S. Department of Health doesn't recommend keeping any perishable food sitting out of the fridge for more than two hours — and that's certainly the case for soft cheeses, like cottage or cream cheese, brie, or fresh mozzarella.

With proper storage in a refrigerator, mozzarella cheese can last for up to one to two weeks. In a freezer, mozzarella cheese can last longer, up to approximately three months. If you find any change of shape, color, taste, and aroma of any part of the cheese, cut and throw away that part.

If you make fresh mozzarella or buy pre-packaged mozzarella from the grocery store, store it in the refrigerator. Store the mozzarella in an airtight container, immersed in cold water or olive oil for up to five days.

Once you open it, fresh mozzarella or burrata will keep refrigerated for five days. Same goes for shredded mozzarella, despite whatever date is stamped on the package. Loaf mozzarella has a 21-day refrigerator shelf life once opened, and smoked mozzarella will keep for 28 days, according to Strange.

Soft cheeses such as cream cheese, cottage cheese, shredded cheeses, and goat cheese must be refrigerated for safety. As a general rule, hard cheeses such as cheddar, processed cheeses (American), and both block and grated Parmesan do not require refrigeration for safety, but they will last longer if kept refrigerated.

Signs such as mold, sour smell, or an alteration in texture can indicate spoilage, and at that point, the mozzarella should not be eaten. Low-moisture mozzarella, once opened, can last for a few weeks if it's kept refrigerated and tightly wrapped to minimize exposure to air.

Fresh mozzarella and burrata, a cheese made with mozzarella and cream, often come stored in water.

Using plastic wrap for storing fresh mozzarella cheese

It is very crucial to ensure that air cannot pass through the wrap. This will prevent your fresh mozzarella cheese from getting rough and crumbly from the inside. Also, you will not have to worry about the cheese drying out within a few days.

Mozzarella cheese is soft and full of moisture. If it wasn't stored in water, it would flatten out over time and lose that moisture.

How do you keep shredded mozzarella fresh? ›

Shredded cheese can be stored in plastic bags or in the packaging it comes in, which is usually resealable. Just make sure to get as much air as possible out of the bag before sealing it shut, says Kuhn. Avoid the freezer, if you can. Try to only buy cheese you want to use within its shelf life.

Fresh mozzarella does not melt well because it is stored in brine. Because of the high moisture content, fresh mozzarella releases water when it melts. This can ruin your pizza and make it watery. You can use processed mozzarella in your pizza, or you can use a mix of milk, half-and-half, or cream.

You can freeze mozzarella cheese in shredded and block form for 3 to 6 months. Fresh mozzarella, like buffalo mozzarella, is not recommended for freezing due to texture and flavor changes. If frozen, it may last for about 1 to 2 months at most.

Generally, vacuum-sealed containers of unopened, refrigerated fresh mozzarella will last up to four to six weeks from the date of manufacture, assuming that it's salted. You should also check the use-by date on the package. Once opened, it should be refrigerated and used within four to seven days.

Soft cheeses Opened soft cheeses like Brie, goat's cheese, mozzarella and feta are more perishable and typically last for a week to a few weeks in the refrigerator. Opened fresh cheeses like ricotta and cottage cheese have an even shorter shelf life and are best consumed within a week or two of opening.

About the Cheese

BelGioioso's 1 lb. Fresh Mozzarella Log is available pre-sliced into 16 slices. Specially formulated to be packaged without water in Thermoform packaging and a 60 day shelf life, our Fresh Mozzarella is made to order for superior quality and taste.

Therefore we say that typically, you can leave cheese out of the fridge for anything between four and eight hours for it still be safe to eat and look its appetising best. If you follow these guidelines, you're in safe territory:. Soft cheeses, like brie or Époisses PDO fall into the lower end of that scale.

Bacteria thrive in temperatures between 40 and 140 degrees and can double every 20 minutes in that “danger zone.” Based on that growth, scientists pinpointed two hours to be the maximum amount of time consumers can safely leave perishable food at room temperature.