Advisory

How long will this stay good, and does that change once I open the bag?

ALS-COFFEE-1.2-SHELF-001

This question is worth asking but is not reducible to a check a page can settle. It is published as guidance, not as a test.

Assertion

shelf_life_split is_stated true

Applicability

applies when
the product is roasted coffee sold by mass
signal
product text discusses freshness duration

Accepted evidence

  • product_description — separate windows for unopened and after-opening, each with units, each stated for the grind state being sold

Explicitly insufficient evidence

What does not count, and why. Published because the omission is where a check quietly becomes a claim.

  • an unopened-pack shelf life quoted as if it were the after-opening window
    The central trap here: an unopened claim can run to a year or more while an opened window is measured in weeks, a difference of roughly twentyfold between two true statements about the same bag. A page saying it stays fresh for months without saying unopened is misleading while being literally defensible.
  • one number covering both whole bean and ground on a page selling both
    Ground coffee's window is materially shorter because more surface area is exposed, so a single figure is wrong for one of the two offers.
  • "stays fresh for months" with no qualifier
    Neither the open state nor the grind state is specified, so the claim cannot be applied to any actual purchase.
  • a packaging-derived figure quoted without its precondition
    Valve and gas-flush figures depend on the pack being intact and are properties of the packaging rather than of the coffee.
  • "won't expire" offered as a freshness statement
    That is a safety statement, and the trade association that makes it pairs it with a moisture and mould caveat.

Conflict rules

  • When the page sells ground coffee and states only one undifferentiated window — then record that the stated window is not differentiated for the ground state, which is the check the readable grind option makes possible

Discrimination

Authored expectation: no prediction, confidence low. The numeric band this standard used to carry is not published at this grammar version.

Almost no page separates opened from unopened or differentiates by grind state, so the assertion as specified would fail for nearly everyone. Published as advisory because the underlying confusion is real and worth naming, not because the row should be run.

The numeric fail-rate band this reasoning was authored with is NOT carried at grammar 1.2 and is not reproduced here. Authored bands held 1 of 10 against this category's own sample and every miss was HIGH, so a direction derived from the band would inherit the error that condemned it (SCHEMA.md §9.3 step 3). The band survives in ALS-COFFEE v1.1 (standard_hash f8ec2780f60c38931913e5b6cd37506500c8462709209de7180ba6691d6137e7), which is byte-frozen and still served.

For a shopper

An unopened bag and an opened one have wildly different useful lives, and a page quoting one figure is usually quoting the flattering one. If you buy ground, expect roughly half the window of whole bean.

For a merchant

State two windows with units — unopened and after opening — and differentiate them for each grind state you sell, rather than carrying one figure across every offer.

Grounding

  • National Coffee Association, storage and shelf life guidance (trade_body)
    materially shorter windows than specialty marketing implies — one to two weeks for ground and one to three for whole beans at room temperature — and that unopened packages retain freshness until the best-by date, which is a different anchor entirely
  • America's Test Kitchen (consumer_guide)
    the consumer-facing separation of quality from safety: flavour deteriorates after two to three weeks while the beans remain safe for months, which is why a safety statement cannot answer a freshness question