How Long Can You Store Cold Pressed Juice

In the never ending search for the perfect glass of cold pressed juice, many people look into how long they can save their juice. Because, as anyone who makes fresh pressed juice will tell you, it would be convenient if you could make several glasses at once and drink them throughout the day or even over the course of two days.

But can you do this? How long can you store cold pressed juice before it starts to turn. How long can cold pressed juice sit in the refrigerator before it starts to smell. How long can you keep it in a bottle before it starts to lose some of it’s benefits.

Great questions and we’re going to answer them all today. This article is a short one and it shouldn’t take long to read it all. You can even skim it to get the main points if you are in a rush.

 

Does Cold Pressed Juice Need to Be Refrigerated?

Yes, cold pressed juice needs to be refrigerated if you plan on keeping it for a long time, and I would preface this to say that I don’t think you should keep cold pressed juice longer than 24 hours.

But, if you make several cups worth of juice in the morning and plan on having some at night when you come home, then it would be smart to store it in the fridge.

And honestly, there are a few reasons to refrigerate your cold pressed juice. Let’s walk through them one by one:

• Taste

If you keep your juice at room temperature, it’s going to taste strange after a while. This has to do with a number of things, but part of the reason is that you’re chilling it to slow down the breakdown in the nutrients. Some of those nutrients are essential oils which give the juice it’s great flavor.

• -Smell

The smell of a juice that’s been left out too long is going to be quite unpleasant. Now, we’re talking about a whole day in the heat. If you only leave the juice out for a few hours it will be fine. The main thing that we need to wonder about is when you’re leaving juice out for several hours in a hot climate.

• -Safety

As a rule, unless you’re planning on leaving your juice out on the counter for days, there’s not a real risk. I would advise anyone who is curious about it to chill their juice and not do some weird science experiment. Refrigeration was invented for a reason and became such a popular resource for people. It prevents illness, foodborne illness being one of the most deadly killers of people in the past, and it also keeps things tasting fresh.

• Convenience

This is a bit of an interesting reason, but it does deserve some time to review. Let’s suppose you make a nice cold pressed juice. Are you just going to leave it sit out on your counter? Why would you do that?

Let’s be honest, it would simply be lazy. Nothing wrong with admitting that, but the whole purpose of making cold press juice is to get on a health kick. And part of being a healthy person is to not procrastinate  or leave dirty dishes around. This is a tall order, I know, but it all goes hand in hand.

If you leave a big pitcher of cold pressed juice on your kitchen table, what do you think is going to happen if it accidently falls over? You’ll have a lot of juice to clean up and you’ll have wasted a nice amount of cold pressed juice.

It’s just better to store the cold pressed juice in a container and place it in the fridge.

 

How Should You Store Cold Press Juice

This one’s pretty simple to answer. You should be using glass. I have a write up here about the best glass to store cold pressed juice in.

But the main thing you should know is that you should always use glass, and not use plastic. Plastic has a whole lot of problems with it. Everything from hormone disruptors to chemicals that have been linked to cancer causing problems.

So, toss out the plastic and stick with glass.

Even the expensive blender bottles that are great for protein shakes are bad for cold pressed juice. Why? Because juice is acidic and blender bottles are made from plastics, even if they advertise themselves as made from safe plastic—avoid. The acidity of the juice will leach chemicals.

Since you’re only storing the juice and not bringing it with you on a jog, just get a well-made glass bottle that you can clean out when you’re done. I like glass that is made to reuse for bottles. These glasses are made with materials such as borosilicate glass (which is stronger than regular glass).

In fact, I’d caution against reusing any sort of glass container that you get from a store like Starbucks or some other stoe that sells disposable drinks in glass.

These stores might have reusable glass, but they will sell those separately because the glass used to make these bottles is much more expensive and durable.

I wrote an article covering how long cold pressed juice lasts, if you want to gain more insight into the length of time you can keep juice.

 

How Long Can Cold-Pressed Juice Last Unrefrigerated

There’s not set amount of time that cold pressed juice can last. However, most people who make juice will tell you to not store cold pressed juice for longer than a day.

Now, the time line that most people subscribe to has more to do with flavor and nutrients. Most people who spend the time making a cold pressed juice aren’t going to keep it for weeks without drinking it.

If you were considering doing that, just don’t. There is very little benefit to drinking a juice several days after you have made it. Also, it can be risky. There is a reason why large juice companies pasteurize their juice. This is especially true with green juice. You’re drinking green juice for the health benefits, not the taste. Let’s be honest. And so it’s important to get those benefits. I covered how long green juice lasts in the fridge in a seperate article that you should also check out.

Now, the reason you make a cold press juice is because you want all of the benefits of fresh cold pressed juice. By putting it in the fridge and not drinking it for a length of time, then you’re not going to get any of the health benefits.