Does fish sauce go bad?

This is when Food52 should have a food safety specialist on board. Would not trust any of the opinions here.

I have a bottle dated 2010 so I'm about to buy a new one (it's 2015)! However, it smells ok, I just don't want to chance it.

Wait -- what? Is this the most misleading thing you've read all week?

Do our products contain MSG?
No. Our product also does not contain hydrolyzed wheat or soybean proteins which are hidden sources of free glutamates.

What is fish sauce if not glutamates? Sure sounds like they're trying to hide the fact too.

I am studying mine, which I keep in the fridge, next to the soy sauce and anything that says oil.

But also notice the reccomendation to refrigerate and to use within a year. Everything oxidizes.

The solids are just salt crystals - nothing to worry about.

http://redboatfishsauce.com/faq.html

I've heard that that it goes bad, but honestly, I've never had fish sauce go 'bad' or develop solids at the bottom, no matter how many months I've had the bottle. And I don't store it in the fridge. My mother never stored fish sauce in the fridge, not even when we moved to the US and she had decent refrigeration. Since my family is originally from the island of Phu Quoc, famous for it's fish sauce, I figure Mom knows what she's doing.

Fish sauce does go bad... It will start to develop solids in the bottom. These are not harmful but does effect the overall quality of the product. I would toss it at that point. It should be kept in the fridge once opened.

The salt content and pH of fish sauce are such that buggers will not grow in it. There is therefore a long shelf life to the product.

It is heavily salted and so in general you can say it doesn't go bad, but I'd be careful anyway.

There are many different kind of fish sauces. In the purest form it's nothing else but fermented fish and salt. These you can keep for the longest time. In general it's hard to answer your question.