How Long Does Pasta Salad Last In The Fridge?

Refreshing, versatile, and easy to serve, pasta salad is an outdoor picnic MVP for good reason.

If you stick a container of leftover pasta salad in the fridge after a cookout, you’ll be able to continue enjoying it for a few days but it’s important to know exactly how long this side dish will remain safe to eat. We asked two food safety experts to answer our pasta salad storage questions, and here’s what they had to tell us.

The Different Types of Pasta Salads

Pasta salad typically includes ingredients like cooked pasta (of course), fresh vegetables, cheese, and sometimes meat, none of which are non-perishable. For that reason, foodborne illness can be a very real risk when eating leftover pasta salad. “Common culprits include bacteria such as Salmonella, Listeria, or E. Coli, which are often associated with ready-to-eat deli salads and some of the fresh ingredients used in homemade pasta salads. When these bacteria proliferate, they can cause symptoms like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

How To Maintain Pasta Salad Freshness

Ensuring proper refrigeration and cleanliness during preparation, and consuming the salad within a safe timeframe are essential steps to minimize these risks,” explains Sara Bratager.

How To Tell If Pasta Has Gone Bad

Count the days since making and storing.

Instead of relying on visual or textural clues to tell you when to throw away your pasta salad, it's a smarter move to count days since making and storing. While “softer vegetables, discolored, salami, or squishy noodles” may inspire you to toss the pasta salad for grossed-out reasons, Bratager says that these less-than-appealing qualities don’t necessarily indicate spoiled food.

Factors That Impact Freshness

• The ingredients in the recipe.
• How long it sat out at room temperature (or warmer outdoor temperatures). “Bacteria can double in as little as 20 minutes when foods are left in the temperature danger zone of 40 degrees Fahrenheit to 140 degrees.

How Long Does Homemade Pasta Salad Last?

Homemade pasta salad can last in the fridge for between 3-7 days.

Storing at a colder temperature in the refrigerator, as close to 40 degrees Fahrenheit as possible, will result in a fresher taste than storing at 60 degrees Fahrenheit.”

• Mayo-based: “Pasta salad with mayonnaise will have a shorter shelf life of 5 to 7 days due to the presence of dairy and egg in the mayo-dressed salads,” Le tells us.
• Oil-dressed salads can last longer, but if they contain “raw, fresh produce,” Le recommends keeping them in the fridge for no longer than 7 days. 
• Meat salads: If you add meat to your salad, keep in mind that this will reduce the shelf life to “3 to 7 days,” says Le. Salads with cured meats like salami can extend their safe-consumption life for 7 days, but more delicate meats like seafood “have shelf lives closer to 3 days.”

How Long Does Store-bought Pasta Salad Last?

Between 7 to 12 days. Yes, longer than you think.

Thanks to preservation processes used in commercial food production, store-bought pasta salads with mayo “would be expected to have a shelf life of 7 to 10 days, while oil-dressed salads would have a shelf life of 12 days,” Le tells us. 

“Mayonnaise is often thought to be the main culprit in spoiling pasta salad, but commercially produced mayo is acidified to inhibit bacteria that cause spoilage and foodborne illness,” Bratager says.

The Best Way To Store Pasta Salad

Store in an airtight container and keep the pasta salad in the coldest part of the fridge, which is the bottom shelf,

”It’s crucial to store it in an airtight container,” Bratager insists. “This helps prevent contamination and maintains the salad's freshness by limiting its exposure to air.