# Do chocolate chips go bad? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 29, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483 "2012-05-29T21:22:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RubyKangaroo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/47e85d/32.png) [@RubyKangaroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RubyKangaroo)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/1 "2012-05-29T21:22:13Z")
I have a bag of opened milk chocolate chocolate chips that have been left out in the kitchen for quite a few days now… are they safe to eat? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/2 "2012-05-29T21:32:56Z")
Why wouldn’t they be safe to eat? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/3 "2012-05-29T21:35:48Z")
Chocolate can get rancid, and not taste very good, but even that takes months or years… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/4 "2012-05-29T21:39:20Z")
Where do you usually keep your chocolate chips? After a year or two, chocolate can develop a white “bloom” on the surface, but even that is harmless (it’s just the fats and solids separating). And while it’s theoretically possible for it to go rancid, I’ve never heard of it actually happening. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/5 "2012-05-29T21:52:47Z")
Cocoa butter has a shelf life of [up to 5 years](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_butter#Niche_uses), one of the most stable fats there is, due to it being mostly saturated fat (which don’t easily oxidize) and antioxidants. Of course, some cheap chocolate is now made with vegetable oils (usually hydrogenated; rancidity would be the least of my concerns with those; such products also can’t advertise as being chocolate but rather chocolate-flavored). ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/6 "2012-05-29T22:16:44Z")
Hee, something tells me that opened containers of chocolate don’t usually last that long in the OP’s house! Speaking as someone who’s allergic to chocolate but likes to bake with chocolate in both sweetened and unsweetened forms, I’ve had opened bags and bars of milk chocolate sitting in the cupboard for months at a time. They’re just fine. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/7 "2012-05-29T22:21:05Z")
A chocolate chip shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die. So yes, chocolate chips can turn bad. Had to be said. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/8 "2012-05-29T22:59:57Z")
“Quite a few days … ?” I thought this would be one where someone is cleaning out Grandma’s attic or something and finds something decades old. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/9 "2012-05-29T23:44:54Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > “Quite a few days … ?” I thought this would be one where someone is cleaning out Grandma’s attic or something and finds something decades old. Some people have been raised to believe that once a package of anything has been opened, it goes bad unless it has been refrigerated. [I had a roomie that was insane about not leaving ANYTHING out of the fridge after it was opened. I found a freaking box of salt in the fridge:dubious::smack: ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/10 "2012-05-29T23:54:16Z")
I had to check to make sure I didn’t end up somehow in Yahoo Answers… ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/11 "2012-05-29T23:57:51Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Some people have been raised to believe that once a package of anything has been opened, it goes bad unless it has been refrigerated. This is true - it’s why Oreos must be eaten en mass once the bag is opened - really, no foolin! It’s science! ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/12 "2012-05-30T01:54:35Z")
Sorry for the highjack, but I have a wacky theory about the American use of the word “bad” in regard to food, where other English speakers would say “off” or “rancid” or even “rotten”. I feel like it’s somehow dissociative and a value judgement, and implies other non-bad food is “good.” Americans are very queer about their food. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/13 "2012-05-30T02:19:54Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > Sorry for the highjack, but I have a wacky theory about the American use of the word “bad” in regard to food, where other English speakers would say “off” or “rancid” or even “rotten”. I feel like it’s somehow dissociative and a value judgement, and implies other non-bad food is “good.” Honestly, though, there really isn’t a way to talk about food spoilage without sounding negative or value-judgmental to some extent. No term used to describe spoiled food comes across as a compliment. Moreover, you may be over-weighting the connotations of “bad” as applied to spoiled food because the usage isn’t familiar enough to you for you to process it as just one of the ordinary meanings of the word. Similarly, it probably sounds perfectly ordinary to non-American English speakers to call spoiled food “off”, whereas to us that may sound rather extreme, as though they’re calling the food insane. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/14 "2012-05-30T02:42:58Z")
Real chocolate will get a white “bloom” and then it doesn’t taste quite right, altho it’s not “bad”. At that point in time, unless you really need it, toss it. Perfectly safe, however. ---
**Author:** ![wheresmymind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@wheresmymind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wheresmymind)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/15 "2012-05-30T03:45:32Z")
Nope. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/16 "2012-05-30T03:50:55Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > Americans are very queer about their food. Don’t believe everything you see in the movies. _American Pie_ notwithstanding, most of us aren’t into that. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/17 "2012-05-30T20:15:09Z")
> [@](#): > > Sorry for the highjack, but I have a wacky theory about the American use of the word “bad” in regard to food, where other English speakers would say “off” or “rancid” or even “rotten”. I feel like it’s somehow dissociative and a value judgement, and implies other non-bad food is “good.” Different kinds of food go bad in different ways. Milk sours. Vegetables rot. Fats go rancid. Bread molds. If someone’s asking “does chocolate go bad?”, they’re not just interested in any one particular process, they’re asking if there’s _anything_ bad that happens to it. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/18 "2012-05-30T21:38:18Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Honestly, though, there really isn’t a way to talk about food spoilage without sounding negative or value-judgmental to some extent. No term used to describe spoiled food comes across as a compliment. Well… there are a lot of foods made or improved by intentionally spoiling food in controlled circumstances and these are often described as “sour,” “cured,” “fermented” and “aged.” Sour cream and sauerkraut, for example. If anything, that’s a defense of the American use of “bad” since we would say that sour milk is bad, but sour cream is good. We would say that moldy cheese is bad… except when it’s good. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![StrangeBird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e480ec/32.png) [@StrangeBird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StrangeBird)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/19 "2012-05-31T10:54:24Z")
> [@RubyKangaroo](#): > > … are they safe to eat? Definitely not - send them to me and I will dispose of them for you. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chocolate-chips-go-bad/623483/20 "2012-05-31T11:26:07Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > Sorry for the highjack, but I have a wacky theory about the American use of the word “bad” in regard to food, where other English speakers would say “off” or “rancid” or even “rotten”. I feel like it’s somehow dissociative and a value judgement, and implies other non-bad food is “good.” > > Americans are very queer about their food. Because “egg shaped” makes much more sense.