Storing soy at home, and the right conditions for doing so, is something that consumers of this highly nutritious food are always dealing with.
Sometimes you have a large amount of dried soy sitting in your kitchen cabinet, and it has you worried.
Or maybe the leftover soaked soy from dinner has you wondering: how can you store soy so that it doesn’t spoil?
Different environmental conditions and different forms of soy each call for their own storage conditions.
In this article, we explain the proper conditions for storing soy at home.
Storing Soybeans
Soybeans are a perishable food and cannot be kept forever.
If you store soybeans in bulk in your pantry or kitchen cabinets, there is a chance that pests will get into them.
That said, two factors—heat and moisture—are especially important.
If the beans have already been dried and are in the form of dry soybeans, store them under the following conditions:
- In a dry place, protected from moisture
- Away from sunlight
- In airtight, vacuum-sealed containers so that insects and pests cannot get in
Stored this way, they can be kept for a relatively long time.
Storing Soy Chunks (Textured Soy Protein)
To store soy chunks at home—that is, the textured soy protein used as a plant-based meat substitute in cooking—it is best to:
Choose one shelf in your kitchen cabinets.
Ideally, this shelf should be cooler than the rest of the kitchen.
Pick a cabinet that is away from the stove.
It is also best to store them in airtight, vacuum-sealed glass containers.
If you want to store soy that has been soaked and drained, first squeeze out all the water, then freeze it in a sealed container in the freezer.
Keep in mind that you should never freeze and store cooked soy for a long period of time.
Storing Soy Milk and Tofu
Soy milk and tofu are also non-dairy soy products, and they should be stored in lidded glass containers.
Soy milk can be kept and consumed for 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator.
You can store packaged tofu according to the information printed on the package.
However, tofu is best consumed within 8 days of opening the package.
Tofu should be kept in a cool, dry place such as the refrigerator.
Also, once tofu has been cooked into a dish, it should be eaten right away or stored in the refrigerator.
Storing Soybean Oil
Like other cooking oils, soybean oil should be kept away from light and heat.
Dry, dark places such as the inside of a cabinet are the best spots for storing soybean oil.
