Most of my customers do not refrigerate my sauces...and I've kept an opened bottle out for 8 mo's in my house with no ill effects.
My "refrigerate after opening" statement is purely about liability. If you're from somewhere hot like AZ, you buy my sauce, open it & then leave it on your back porch for 3 months in the summer heat, then eat it & get sick, that's somehow my fault.
So, since I don't know what everyone's environment is like or how responsible they are, I put "refrigerate after opening".
I also prefer hot sauce at room temperature.
As for the use-by date discussion, maybe my suggested use by date isn't actually an expiration...or maybe CA has more feisty inspectors.
My "refrigerate after opening" statement is purely about liability. If you're from somewhere hot like AZ, you buy my sauce, open it & then leave it on your back porch for 3 months in the summer heat, then eat it & get sick, that's somehow my fault.
So, since I don't know what everyone's environment is like or how responsible they are, I put "refrigerate after opening".
I also prefer hot sauce at room temperature.
As for the use-by date discussion, maybe my suggested use by date isn't actually an expiration...or maybe CA has more feisty inspectors.
That explains a lot right there. Some of the laws in that state are down right absurd.