Does Hand sanitiser expire?
Does Hand sanitiser expire?
The alcohol evaporates. Below about 60 per cent it stops working, and you cannot tell by looking.
2-3 years sealed, considerably less in a frequently opened bottle
Ethanol and isopropanol both evaporate readily, and every opening of the bottle lets a little vapour out. The effectiveness threshold is a concentration one — below roughly 60 per cent alcohol, sanitiser stops reliably inactivating most pathogens — so a bottle that has lost a third of its alcohol is not a third less effective, it is close to useless. A bottle carried loose in a bag in the heat loses alcohol fastest.
How to store it
- Cap tightly. Keep it out of hot cars.
How to tell it has gone
- A watery feel rather than the fast-evaporating one, or a much weaker smell.
"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 Hand sanitiser expire?
- The alcohol evaporates. Below about 60 per cent it stops working, and you cannot tell by looking.
- How long does Hand sanitiser last?
- 2-3 years sealed, considerably less in a frequently opened bottle
Related pages
- Does Eggs expire? Eggs stay usable for weeks past the date on the box, and the float test tells you about age rather than safety.
- Does Medicines expire? Most solid medicines keep much of their potency for years past the date — but a handful genuinely must not be used late.
- Does Petrol and diesel expire? Petrol goes stale within months, and ethanol blends go faster because they absorb water.
- Does Batteries expire? They self-discharge on the shelf, at very different rates by chemistry — and alkalines leak when flat.
- Does Wine expire? The great majority of wine is meant to be drunk within a year or two. Very little of it improves.
- Does Chocolate expire? It keeps far longer than the date. The white bloom on old chocolate is fat or sugar, not mould.
- Does Household bleach expire? It loses strength within months and eventually becomes salt water. This surprises most people.
- Does Paint expire? Unopened water-based paint keeps a few years; opened tins depend entirely on how well they were sealed.
- Does Honey expire? Does not expire
- Does Milk expire? Has a real expiry date
- Does Sunscreen expire? Unsafe or ineffective after the date
- Does Salt expire? Does not expire
- 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))