Does Medicines expire?
The date on a medicine is the last day the manufacturer guarantees full potency in the unopened original container, not the day it becomes harmful. The US military's Shelf Life Extension Program tested thousands of stockpiled lots and found the large majority still met specification years past their dates, some by more than a decade. That result is widely misread as "expiry dates are meaningless", which is wrong in specific and important cases: nitroglycerin, insulin, liquid antibiotics, epinephrine auto-injectors, thyroid medication and anything in solution degrade meaningfully, and a weakened dose of some of those is a serious event rather than an inconvenience.
How to store it
- Not the bathroom. Heat and humidity are what actually degrade tablets, and a bathroom cabinet is the worst place in the house.
- Keep them in the original container with its desiccant.
How to tell it has gone
- Aspirin that smells of vinegar has hydrolysed to acetic acid and salicylic acid — a genuine and reliable sign.
- Discolouration, crumbling, or a changed smell in any tablet means discard.
"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 Medicines expire?
- Most solid medicines keep much of their potency for years past the date — but a handful genuinely must not be used late.
- How long does Medicines last?
- Tablets and capsules: often years past the date. Liquids, creams and anything refrigerated: obey the date
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 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 Flour expire? White flour keeps 6-12 months; wholemeal goes rancid in 3-6 because the wheat germ oil oxidises.
- 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))