Butter: Every Food Safety Answer

This page pulls together the 4 butter answers on the site: how long it keeps, whether you can freeze it, how long it can be left out and where it stands in pregnancy. The table gives the short answer for each; the page behind each row gives the full reasoning, the source and the exceptions.

In pregnancy: Yes — butter is safe to eat during pregnancy and can be enjoyed as part of a healthy, balanced diet.

Worth knowing: Butter is about 80% fat and very little water, which leaves bacteria almost nothing to grow in, so it keeps far longer than milk or cream even though it comes from them. What limits it is rancidity rather than bacteria: the fat slowly oxidises and takes on flavours from the rest of the fridge, so keep it wrapped or covered.