---
title: "Does Medicines expire? Degrades in quality"
description: "Most solid medicines keep much of their potency for years past the date — but a handful genuinely must not be used late. What actually changes over time, whether it "
url: https://atoneplace.net/does-it-expire/medicines/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Does Medicines expire?

**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.**

Tablets and capsules: often years past the date. Liquids, creams and anything refrigerated: obey the date

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

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## Sources

- US Food and Drug Administration — FDA (https://www.fda.gov/) [Public domain (US Government)]