Our protein cookie dough snacks are shelf-stable. That means that they can sit in your pantry for quite a while before they lose their quality. In fact, it would take an extremely long time for them to really go bad and make you sick.
However, that also makes it hard to tell when they’re bad and what that actually means for you.
Today, we’re going to cover the signs protein cookie dough has gone bad, and then we’ll give you eight tips to keep protein cookie dough fresh.
How to Know Your Protein Cookie Dough Bites Have Gone Bad
Being shelf stable and in a sealed bag, it’s very unlikely that your cookie dough bites will go bad in the sense that they make you seriously ill. You’d have to wait an extremely long time.
Unfortunately, they do lose a lot of their quality even before that happens.
The biggest sign is that you pop one in your mouth and it just tastes stale. It might not be enough to get you sick, and it might even have some of its flavor left. However, it will taste somewhat like what we imagine a shirt covered in mothballs tastes like. Just old, stale, and very little desirable flavor.
Another sign that goes with that is that the texture is lost. Our bites taste and feel like cookie dough. If your bites are becoming crumbly or they have a gritty texture to them, they’ve probably been sitting around too long.
Those are the two big giveaways, but honestly, it’s best to just pitch it after the best-by date. That’s when those things start to happen, and you can’t guarantee their quality or safety after that.
Luckily, both chocolate chip and birthday cake flavors taste so good that you’re usually going to eat them long before any of that happens.
Keeping Your Protein Cookie Dough Bites Fresh
We told you how to figure out if your bites are still good, but how do you maximize that shelf life to really stretch out your supply? They’re famously light in calories, so what’s the best way to keep them fresh if you don’t eat a full portion and want to save some for later?
Here are 8 tips to help with that.
1. Put All Opened Bites into a Sealed Package and Refrigerate
Let’s say you open a bag and you just can’t eat it all. They’re portioned for individual servings, but with such high protein (and low sugar) content, some newbies can have a hard time eating it all in one sitting.
If that happens, you can’t just roll the bag top up and lay it on the counter. You really want as air-free an environment as possible to keep them fresh.
Grab a zip-up bag, store the rest of your bites in it, and toss that in the fridge.
This will keep them fresh and tasty until you can eat the rest of them, and we personally love them cold. It’s just like that tube of cookie dough you had as a kid.
2. Keep Them in a Cool Area
You don’t have to refrigerate your bites if they’re not going to be open for more than an hour or so, but you also don’t want to leave them in an area that gets very hot.
Sitting them next to your stove, on the dashboard of your car, or anywhere else that’s going to expose them to heat will mess them up. When you get your supply, we recommend putting it in a cabinet or pantry.
3. Pitch Them at the Best by Date
This one is pretty simple, but when your supply hits its best-by date, just toss it out. Yes, we know that a lot of products might still be perfectly fine after that date, but it is a gamble that you’re taking full responsibility for.
We do know that it sucks wasting money, though. So, we recommend buying one box at first, seeing how many you can realistically go through in a month, and only buying that amount. Don’t buy a massive stockpile that will expire before you eat it all.
And if you’re struggling to finish them in time… just a friendly reminder that they’re perfectly acceptable as breakfast.
4. Keep the Packaging in Good Condition
Our packaging is top-notch, but it needs to be kept in good condition to ensure that its seal remains intact.
When you’re transporting your supply of bites, remember it’s not a football, and when you store it, try not to stack things on top or put it in a position where it might fall or have things fall on it.
If the seal gets messed up, it’s like letting them sit on the counter open for however long you have them. They’ll go stale very quickly.
5. Keep an Eye Out for Rodents and Act Quickly
You love our cookie dough bites, we love them, and guess who else loves them? Pests.
If you have a rodent problem, they may raid your stash. Always keep them elevated off the floor, watch out for signs of rodents, and act quickly if you do notice signs of rodents.
6. Try Vacuum-Sealed Mylar
We’re not going anywhere anytime soon, but if you’re worried we are, want to keep an emergency supply, or just don’t like placing orders very often, consider vacuum-sealing your supply in mylar bags.
This is often used for long-term food storage, and it will add a lot of life to your bites.
7. Try Dry Freezing It
We encourage trying new ways to eat FUUL, and one of the hottest new trends is dry-freezing things. It will completely change the texture, and some people might not like it, but it’ll make your FUUL basically good for 25 years or longer if you package it right afterward.
Do this at your own risk since it’s not offered that way, but there are a lot of things, such as generic versions of your favorite candies, that are dry frozen and taste great.
8. Avoid Moisture
Moisture isn’t going to just leak into the bag. We have high-quality and sealed packaging. However, it will degrade that packaging. So, keep your supply away from very moist areas like the kitchen sink, under the sink, cabinets right over the sink or stove, etc.
Get the Best Shelf-Stable Protein Cookie Dough with FUUL
If you’ve ever wondered how to tell if protein cookie dough is expired, we hope this post cleared things up.
From spotting the signs of staleness to simple storage tips that keep your snacks fresh longer, it’s all about getting the most out of every bite. Whether you're stocking up or just grabbing a bag or two, following these tips will help you enjoy our products at their best.
Contact us at FUUL today if you have any questions or just want to chat!