The short answer is, no, but it depends on the type of Peanut Butter you are purchasing.
Peanut Butter has a long shelf life, due to its low moisture content, meaning it's an unfavourable condition for bacterial growth. Some brands of Peanut Butter try to preserve it even longer, by adding stabilisers and preservatives.
At 99th Monkey we use only natural, raw materials, meaning we do not add any preservatives or stabilisers, oils or sugars to our nut butters.
We make two different kinds of Peanut Butter, the first is our Unsalted Natural Peanut Butter, which contains nothing other than roasted peanuts. The second is our Salted Natural Peanut Butter, which contains just two ingredients and that is roasted peanuts and salt.
Oil separation can occur with natural, unrefined Peanut Butter, this can cause the product to become rancid sooner, in comparison to a Peanut Butter with added preservatives and stabilisers. However this length of time is far beyond the time that you should take to finish a jar of your beloved Peanut Butter! Therefore, storing your Peanut Butter in a cool and dry place is perfectly fine.
While Peanut Butter does not have to be refrigerated, some may store it in the fridge out of pure preference. The colder temperature can cause the Peanut Butter to thicken, due to the oils hardening at the cooler temperatures.
So there you go. The short answer is, no, our Peanut Butter at 99th Monkey DOES NOT need to be kept in the fridge. The fridge can help preserve the Peanut Butter for a little while longer, but as I said, you definitely shouldn’t be worrying about not finishing a jar of Peanut Butter before it goes rancid - because who takes that long to go through a jar anyway??
