With fresh foods, it’s easy to tell by smell and appearance when they’re past their prime. But when you start to venture into canned, jarred and bottled items -- things like mustard, butter, olives or broth -- it’s much more of a gray area.

You can’t always rely on sell-by dates, either. These are often just suggestions, and foods often stay good beyond the date on the package. (Plus, many bottled and canned items don’t even contain dates of any kind.)

Ideally, most of the foods in your diet should be of the unprocessed, fresh variety, but I know many of you have at least a few of your favorite condiments stored away.

So how long can you safely store chili sauce, tomato paste, pickles and more? About a year upopened, and anywhere from five days to a couple of months once they’re in the fridge (check out the link below for details on 18 foods).  

WebMD