Why does some peanut butter require refrigeration?

If you use peanut butter often enough you don't have to refrigerate it

The hydrogenated oils in other sorts of peanut butter act as a preservative that allow it to last longer without refrigeration.

Also, if you don't feel like stirring it, just flip it upside down after each use.

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organic

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reason- natural things will rot without preservatives and such....including peanuts in a jar in a hot cabinet


just in case you didn't know

hydrogenated oils!

think that was crampbark

The oil in those separates and goes rancid.

peanut oil goes rancid fairly quickly, so I assume the same logic would pertain to natural PB.

PB does not need to be refrigerated.

Your standard big-brand peanut butters like Jif, Skippy, and Peter Pan are all shelf-stable for a long time. You can leave them at room temperature, preferably closed, for weeks or months without any problem. They contain preservatives and a high sugar content, so they don't make a good growth medium for nasty bugs and molds and such.

Raw peanut butters, or all-natural types often don't have any preservatives, and DO need to be refrigerated. They often come in separate layers of solid and oil, and need to be stirred up, but even pre-stirred versions are better kept in the cool case. I would check the label, since the ones which need refrigeration usually say so.

Of all those things you mentioned I only regularly refrig is eggs, and I actually never thought that they could be left out.

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bought a different kind of PB last time at the grocery-some organic kind b/c they had a coupon next to it making it cheaper than Skippy natural. I noticed this PB says refrigerate after opening. Why is that? I hate having cold, hard to spread PB.

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As has been mentioned, those PB's contain only the peanuts and naturally occurring oils from the grinding. No preservative oils, no hydrogenated oils. That's a good thing.

Once we open the jar and stir with first, we place in the refigerator so the oile doesn't re-settle and it doesn't go rancid. All you have to do is take the jar out for a few minutes prior to use. It softens up.