THE great sauce debate may have been finally solved - you MUST keep ketchup and brown sauce in the fridge once opened, according to experts.
Not only that, any remaining red sauce should be thrown away after three months and HP, Daddies or other brown versions after six months.
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Mayo, mustard, tartare and BBQ sauces should also go in the fridge once the lid has come off and not be kept for too long either.
The domestic gurus of the Good Housekeeping Guide have compiled the ultimate guide.
It follows the decision by supermarket giant Asda to trial putting its ketchup in the fridge section of the aisles rather than the shelves.
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According to Good Housekeeping, this may not be necessary. Every sauce and condiment it lists can be kept in the food cupboard or larder while the seal remains intact.
It’s only once the bottle has been opened that a decision needs to be made and this is where the arguments start.
Good Housekeeping Institute recently sparked a row by claiming tomatoes should NOT be kept in the fridge, because they lose their flavour there.
However, it is not the same advice for the sauce made from the fruit. Tomato ketchup SHOULD be kept in the fridge once opened but for no longer than three months.
For mayonnaise and even mustard, the advice is the same - in the fridge but not for more than three months.
Brown sauce and tartate sauce should also be kept there, but while the former can last for up to six weeks after opening, the latter will only be good to eat for six weeks.
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Chilli sauce, BBQ sauce and mint sauce all have to go in the fridge once opened but olive oil, soy sauce and Worcestershire Sauce are fine in the larder, preferably in the dark.
Best of all is malt vinegar which can not only stay in the food cupboard once opened but can stay there "indefinitely."
The GHI guide said: “We’ve all been guilty of leaving a bottle in the fridge door or at the back of a cupboard, only to find it six months later.
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“This is particularly true of some of the less commonly used condiments. And one rule definitely doesn’t fit all!
“For instance, you can leave Worcestershire sauce for a year and find it’s still edible, but you’ll need to bin your apple sauce long before that.”
