Does Bottled water expire?
Water is not a growth medium on its own and sealed bottled water does not go off. What changes is the container: polyethylene terephthalate is slightly permeable, so over a year or two the water picks up flavours from the surrounding air and from the plastic itself, and a bottle stored next to cleaning products will taste of them. Some jurisdictions have required a date on all packaged food and drink, water included, which is where a great deal of the confusion comes from. A bottle left in a hot car accelerates the plastic side of this considerably.
How to store it
- Cool, dark, away from solvents and cleaning products. Plastic breathes.
How to tell it has gone
- Off or plastic-like taste. Cloudiness in a sealed bottle means the seal failed.
"Use by" and "best before" are legally different. Use-by is a safety date and should be respected; best-before is about quality, and food is usually fine well past it. Where the two diverge matters, the page above says which applies.
Common questions
- Does Bottled water expire?
- The water does not expire. The date is about the plastic, and in some places about the law.
- How long does Bottled water last?
- Indefinite for the water; 1-2 years before the plastic starts affecting taste
Related pages
- Does Honey expire? No. Honey does not spoil — edible honey has been recovered from Egyptian tombs. Crystallisation is not spoilage.
- Does Salt expire? No. Salt is a mineral, and the date on the packet is a labelling convention rather than a biological fact.
- Does Sugar expire? No. Sugar is itself a preservative — at that concentration nothing can grow in it.
- Does Vinegar expire? No. Vinegar is acidic enough to be self-preserving, and the murky blob in cider vinegar is harmless.
- Does Vanilla extract expire? Pure vanilla extract does not expire — it is 35% alcohol. Imitation vanilla does slowly lose its flavour.
- Does Eggs expire? Degrades in quality
- Does Medicines expire? Degrades in quality
- Does Milk expire? Has a real expiry date
- Does Sunscreen expire? Unsafe or ineffective after the date
- Does Frozen food expire? Indefinite if stored properly
- Does Canned food expire? Indefinite if stored properly
Sources
- US Food and Drug Administration — FDA (Public domain (US Government))