How Long Does Cold Pressed Juice Last?

 

If you’re a beginner to juicing and are interested in the basics of juicing and how to store juice, then you’re likely curious as to how long cold pressed juice will last. As a side note, I have a great article which covers the best juicer for beginners. Read it so you don’t waste your money on a juicer that’s going to fail you soon after buying it.

It’s a good topic to spend some time on because juicing is somewhat complicated for people who aren’t used to it.

Once you understand how to use a juicer, it’s not a big deal. Most people can easily adapt to juicing very fast. Once you make the switch from buying store brought juice from a store or buying juice from a juice store where they make it fresh for you for a premium, to making fresh cold pressed juice at home yourself.

The big question that is involved with juicing fresh cold pressed juice is not so much the mechanics involved with juicing, but rather with the question of how long the cold pressed juice will last.

Here’s the thing: you will be saving an enormous amount of money if you are juicing your own green juices. However, if you don’t know how to keep the juice or if you don’t know how long the cold pressed juice will last, then you’re going to waste money.

 

Why Doesn’t Cold Pressed Juice Last as Long as Store Brought?

Let’s take a brief look at the difference between store brought juice and freshly made juice. These are two very different things.

Store brought juice doesn’t have the same benefits that fresh cold pressed juices have. This is because store brought juices are pasteurized and heated. This is done to prevent bacteria and other food borne illnesses from taking hold in the juice.

If you make juice fresh, which is what cold pressed juice is, then you are not going to end up something that is heated in the same way that commercial juices are. This is a good thing!

When you heat a juice, you are destroying nutrients. That’s why people prefer to use cold pressed juice. The cold pressed juice has more nutrients and beneficial vitamins and enzymes than store brought juices.

So, as you can see cold pressed juices don’t last as long as store brought juices. But they have more benefits than store brought juices.

The reason why cold pressed juice doesn’t last as long as store brought juice ties into the reason it’s good for you. The healthier the juice, the fresher the juice. If you’ve made cold pressed juice then it should be something you drink sooner than later.

 

How Can You Tell if Cold Pressed Juice Is Bad?

The smell.  You can tell if the cold pressed juice has gone bad if it smells. If you’re making cold pressed juice then you should be drinking it as soon as possible.

The longer you leave that juice in the fridge, the less beneficial it will be. I suggest making a cold pressed juice and drinking it that day.

Ideally, drink it right away. If you do have to store it, then you’re best to store it in glass for only a few hours.

A cold pressed juice is fine if you refrigerate it for several hours in glass (or even in plastic, though I highly suggest you just use glass).

After 24hours it is a good idea to do a smell test. The juice should not have a funky odor. Now, that’s not going to happen after only a few hours or even a day.

If you do let juice sit in the fridge for several days (like 4 plus days) then you do have to be hesitant.

The cold pressed juice that you have in your fridge doesn’t have any preservatives in it so it’s not going last for weeks.

You should only save the juice for a few days at max. I like to call it the 3 day rule, which I’ll cover below.

 

How Do You Preserve Cold Pressed Juice?

You don’t. I don’t suggest that you try and add anything to your juice to preserve it. It’s better if you just drink your juice as soon as possible.

The best way to preserve your cold pressed juice is to simply store it in a clean glass bottle. That is the perfect storage method.

I don’t suggest using plastic bottles because plastic can leach. It’s also harder to clean plastic bottles than glass bottles.

The simplest method is to just keep the juice in a glass bottle and drink it before two days pass.

 

The 3 Day Rule: Anything Longer is Risky

As a rule, just keep your juice storage to a max of three days. Anything longer than three days would be pushing it.

The risk with keeping juice longer than a few days is that you’re risking that your juice develops bacteria.

Now, this is something that most of the time you can smell. Juice that has gone bad just has a bad taste and a bad smell.

Cold pressed juice also loses some of it’s benefit. So, to keep it to a three-day rule is my suggestion.

There are studies that suggest that flash frozen juice keeps its benefits, while that’s true, it’s not something that applies to fresh cold pressed juice.

So, my advice would be to never keep cold pressed juice for longer than three days.

Does that mean you should make a ton of cold pressed green juice and then toss it?

No, that would be a waste of moeny and a waste of fruits and vegetables.

Instead, what I suggest you do is make reasonable portions that you can expect to finish within a day or so.

If you really must store fresh juice, then read this articel which covers how to store fresh juice without losing nutrients.