How Long Does Fresh Juice Last – Everything You Need To Know

Nobody wants to take a big drink of what you thought was nice fresh juice only to get a mouthful of old vegetables far beyond their best.

There’s even a chance if you’re reading this that you’re standing there deciding whether or not your juice is OK to drink. Well please read this article before you take a swig so you can at least know what to look out for to tell if it’s spoiled.

I’m also going to talk about how to store your juice so it lasts as long as possible, the possible health problems of spoiled juice and look at how fast juice loses its nutrients.

But before all that let’s take a look at the main event.

How Long Does Fresh Juice Last

Typically, fresh juice will last about a day before it spoils, roughly 24 hours, but this is if it’s made with a centrifugal juicer. If you make your juice with a masticating juicer it will last a bit longer and last 2-3 days, up to around 72 hours.

So let’s take a look at why that is shall we?

Masticating vs Centrifugal Juicers

I’ve actually talked a lot about all the differences between masticating and centrifugal juicers for those curious but for now let’s stick with specifically how long their juice lasts.

Masticating juicers also get called slow and cold juicers because the RPM of the auger (the bit that crushes the fruit and veg) is low, this stops the juice from heating up and stops it from getting oxidized. This means that juice from a cold press juicer can last 2-3 days before it starts to spoil.

Because it’s the process of heating and oxidation that causes the juice to start the process of going bad, it doesn’t happen straight away but it causes the process to happen faster.

In a centrifugal juicer the juicing blade is spinning so fast it can suck a lot of air into the machine, and you know how when you leave half an apple out it starts to turn brown? That’s from oxidation.

So ultimately if you want long-lasting juice you’re going to want to buy a masticating juicer, check out my reviews of the best ones here.

How Fast Does Juice Lose Its Nutrients

Lasting until it spoils and when it starts to lose its nutrients are definitely two different things. Because of the aforementioned oxidation, your juice will start to lose nutrition after about 30 minutes, so you want to drink it as soon as possible. This is a slow process of losing nutrients but for maximum nutrition, you want to drink it as soon as possible.

But, just like the apple that goes brown, if you put that half an apple in a sealed container and inside the fridge it would turn brown a lot slower, which is why you want to keep it chilled and contained.

How Long Does Fresh juice Last In A Mason Jar?

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I know a mason jar is quite a common way of storing fresh juice so I’m sure you’re wondering if that will help make it last longer. Well the good news is it will, the bad news is I’ve already taken that into consideration, juice stored in a mason jar will last 1 day from a centrifugal juicer or 2-3 days from a masticating juicer if it’s also kept in the fridge.

How Long Does Blended Juice Last?

Blending is somewhere in the middle of cold press juices and centrifugal juices so it lands somewhere in the middle, but there is some heat transfer so I’d trust it about a day or two. If you make a batch one morning you could have it the next day and then for the day after you’d have to trust your nose and your eyes to tell you if it has gone bad which is what I’m going to talk about next.

How To Tell If Your Juice Has Gone Bad

Generally if it’s gone bad you’ll be able to tell pretty quickly, First off you’ll be able to smell it, if it smells different to when you first made it and you’re not sure if it’s good, it’s probably not good.

Likewise, if it’s a different colour to when you first made it, back away slowly. It will separate and then change color slightly but that’s normal, what you want to look out for is any brown colors, particularly on top of the juice, so have a look at the top before you shake it.

How Long Does Fresh Juice Last In The Freezer?

I’m not a huge fan of keeping juice in the freezer, you lose a lot of the nutrition over time (I’ve got a more in-depth article on whether or not you can freeze juice here) but it can be done so I thought I should mention it.

You can keep it in the freezer and still drink it for up to about 6 months but gradually as time goes by the nutrition will start to dissapear, not completely, it’ll still be healthy but you want to ideally drink it within around 3 months, but up to 6 is fine, just make sure it’s been defrosted before you get stuck in.

This is good if you grow your own fruit and end up harvesting more than you can cope with, in that situation better to get it frozen than have to throw ita way and waste it which is my general rule for freezing juice, only do so if the alternative is wasting it.

Do Different Types of Juice Go Bad Differently?

Green juice compared to something more fruity? What about orange juice compared to carrot juice?

I’ve talked about orange juice in a separate article because it’s so common but in general all juices spoil at about the same rate, the only difference you’ll see is if it’s store-bought juice. Store bought juice has extra preservatives added to it to make it last longer in the bottle, preservatives which you can’t get for your at home juice, so it can last for months unopened (but please check the bottle for specifics!).

The same is for citrus fruits, whether it’s freshly squeezed lime juice or lemon juice, or even carrot or beets all juice should be drank (or used) immediately after making for the best results, but if not then keep it in the fridge for about 24 hours.

How Bad Is Spoiled Juice For You

Are we talking hospitalization? or a day spent in the bathroom? Well, I’m no doctor, but It would have to be some seriously old juice to put you anywhere near a hospital. If you do have some that’s past it’s best though you can expect the common food poisoning symptoms, upset stomach, stomach cramps, all that good stuff.

So nothing life-threatening but certainly nothing I would want to have to deal with.

How To Make Fresh Juice Last Longer

So we know how long it lasts, we know it’s bad for us, but we don’t yet know how to keep it fresh for longer… Until now!

Proper Storage

First and foremost you want to get your juice stored properly, so it’s in the fridge, it’s in a proper bottle that’s clean and see through so you can see your juice on the inside.

Your juice bottle is a very important choice (here are my recommendations) I like to use glass because it involves less plastic which I’m personally trying to cut back on. But apart from that they go in the dishwasher easily and as long as you’re careful not to break them, most are shatterproof, they last a really long time and don’t get all scratched up and cloudy.

Vacuum Seal

What is a cool new technology that I think is going to keep getting bigger vacuum sealing your juice after you’ve made it. Ninja has a new blender that vacuum seals the juice into a bottle after you’ve made it to keep it fresher for longer. It’s pretty new but it’s a really good idea that I can see becoming a lot more popular.

Fresh Fruits And Vegetables

Finally, you want to make sure that the produce you’re using is fresh, as fresh as it can possibly be. So fresh it’s not even grown yet! Ok… not quite that fresh… But if you’re using fruits or vegetables that are close to expiring then they’re not going to last very well once they’ve been made into juice either.

Organic is always good but I understand that it’s more expensive so if you simply can’t afford it don’t worry your regular fruits and vegetables will still last a good length of time.

Conclusion

So that’s it, hopefully, you now know more about how long fresh juice lasts than you ever thought you’d need to. But I hope you found it useful and can start enjoying your own juice for longer at home. If you think I missed anything let me know in the comments and I can update the article!

But to some up, cold press juice will last 2-3 days (when properly stored in the fridge) meanwhile centrifugal juice will only last you about 24 hours. That being said all juice is best as soon as it’s made so if you can make it fresh every day then I’d definitely consider doing so.

However if you’ve ended up with more juice than you can handle you can stick in the fridge and freeze it where it’ll be fine for a few months and you can keep on enjoying the fruits of your labor till the next harvest is ready!

Happy juicing!