Apparently I do..........and I don't. I found a bottle of aspirin that I had accidentally put in storage in 2003. When I found it in 2012 I continued to use them. I'm pretty sure I was beyond the expiration date.

Example #2 - Also in that storage container, in a box, was a little jar of Carmex. I'm still using it, got half a jar left, so it is probably 16 years old at least. I can't find an expiration date. On the lid it says $0.89. I saw the same 1/4 Oz. jar in Walgreens today for $1.99. (I figure Carmex is like fine wine; gets better with age.)

Come to think of it, I don't think I do believe in expiration dates. I tend to use the Eye & Nose test. If it looks bad or smells bad, I throw it out.

I don't either...

Aspirin will eventually go bad. it has nothing to do with the expiration date. Just like powder and ammo, its temperature and humidity that will kill it. Aspirin will smell like vinegar when it goes bad.
Certain antibiotics will go bad... I forget which..
I have had 2 different doctors tell me that drugs do not "expire" with the exceptions noted above. And the drug companies will take the US "expired" drugs and ship them off to the rest of the world.

Cover from lawyers, like a heavy trigger. Informed judgement is our friend.

I am an avid believer in expiration dates, well.... for dairy products.

All the expiration date on filled prescriptions (the don’t use after so and so on the pharmacy bottle) means is that the prescription is only good for that length of time legally.

The manufacturers dates mean it is guaranteed to be 95% as effective as new, and uncontaminated (unless opened) if stored per directions.

They put expiration dates on steel medical instruments now. Again, that is only a guarantee of sterility if the package is intact.

FDA decided everything has to have an expiration. Lowest common denominator stuff.

Tried making some cabbage rolls with 10 year old tomato juice, last week. Expiration date definitely applies there. Found it in my storage room. Tomatoes, I gather are acidic and react with the can.

Grizz

With acidic vegetables that's true. With prescription drugs not so much. They would have you believe that your pills have a one-year shelf life. WRONG! But you must confess that it helps to generate sales. Most expiration dates on canned goods are really a suggestion, I.E. 'sell by'. Common sense needs to apply. Most foods won't go bad within a 6 month period of the date but if when you open a can + it fizzes, you have potential botulism. Sauerkraut in a glass jar is impervious to spoilage(hell, it was rotten when it was jarred).

I have stopped believing all this bullshit once they started putting expiration date on salt!

I remember back around 1975/76 one of the hunting crew came up with 6 cases of WWII C rations. They thought it would be as good idea to have in the cabin in case someone got stuck up there in a snowstorm or whatever..
Well it didn't take long for someone to realize that there were cigarettes and toilet paper in them... just what a hunter needed in those days.. and that led to the discovery of the peanut butter and canned peaches. Both were still good... they lasted maybe 2 hunting seasons. There was other stuff in there but I can't for the life of me remember what it was..

I was in the pharmaceutical business for 25 years.
You can add 15 years to expiration dates if product is kept in climate control. The exception is antibiotics. Check for chalky deposits on capsules/pills. Ditch if you find them. Don't flush. Bury or incinerate. Antibiotics in the sewage treatment plants can foul up effluent with resistant bacteria.

pop-tarts and little Debbie brownies are still edible several yrs after the expiration date.... you'll find out one day when you are stuck out on an oilfield location with no phone service, on a 3 hr job that takes all day and part of the next... btw, underwoods deviled ham tastes pretty good on Cheetos....

You're right Jim. Adverse circumstances sometimes makes us all eat a lot of odd shit that under ordinary circumstances would gag a maggot. I talked with a guy on the job about a hunting trip he went on in the Dakotas + they got snowed in, in their tent camp. He made the mistake of eating K-rats that he found out later the guy's father brought back from War 2. He was sick as a dog, thought he was going to die, + wishing he would. Being snowed in they didn't go anywhere for a couple of weeks. It made an impression on him (+ me just hearing the story).

Oh, one more thing. A friend in Austin a few years ago had a guy come by who left a Hostess cupcake on him wooden mantle + walked away forgetting it. Clint decided to see how long it would last. After 6 months it started to sag just a little on one side.

Just realized my bottle of Afrin Nasal Spray expired on November 1, 2009. Damn!

when you think about it, drugs (except for antibiotics) are nothing more than chemical compounds.. Unless something in the environment is introduced to change it, like heat or humidity, it should not chance and be stable and safe.

Also I was thinking that I have had a few female companions that had expiration dates.. although it was not stamped on them anywhere, I had to figure it out for myself!

I ate K-rations or C-rations in 1980 in Basic.

I've got a half gallon of milk that has an expiration date of Jan. 9. It's still good Jan. 15. I'll check every day to see when it goes bad.

Dave

I guarantee you did not eat K rations in 1980; however, C rations were still in routine issue; MREs didn't come out until 1983; I remember it well. I still get them at the commissary and I like them. I liked C rations as well; for those who don't know, C rations were canned; MREs are sealed in pouches. All come with heaters now too. I used to put the C rats on my jeep (M151) engine. Punch a hole in it first. By noon, me and my driver would have a hot meal.

When I was outfitting in northern B.C. in the 70s I found a rusted can of sardines on the side of the mountain. We knew it had been there at least 7 years if not longer. I was hungry so I opened the can, smelled it and decided to eat it. The other guide, an Indian (they called themselves Indian then and proud of it) was sure I was going to die. I am still here, but I have to admit, that was a bit foolhardy, but that is when I was bullet proof.

Jim

When I was running Venezuela in 1990, our CEO's secretary sent a message in early December to tell me that they were sending me two dozen Eilenberger Christmas Cakes from Palestine, Texas https://www.eilenbergerbakery.com/ to give to our customers. I immediately got on the phone and told her to stop the order. She said it was too late, they shipped earlier in the week. Needless to say they didn't get to us in time for Christmas. They apparently got lost, as I knew they would.

The following November, eleven months later, I found a box sitting on my desk. It had more stamps on it than my ten year old passport. Inside the badly damaged box were six Eilenberger Christmas Cakes. I opened one and it was 90% mold on the top. I put it back in the box and used it as a door stop. I assumed the other eighteen Christmas cakes were lost.

Not so. A month later, a week or so before Christmas, I got a notice from Venezuela Customs in Maracaibo. We had a box waiting for us.

I drove there and went into the back of a Customs warehouse with two female Customs Agents. They drug this big crumpled box out and asked me what was in the small white boxes. I told them "tortas". Their eyes lit up and they asked me if they could each have one. I asked them how much it would cost me to clear Customs on them. They told me about $100 US. I told them to keep all eighteen. I then immediately left the building, hustled to my Jeep Cherokee, and hauled ass before they had time to open the boxes and start throwing rocks at me.

Claxton Fruit Cakes. Same density as a brick, maybe more. Last forever.

My relatives in Georgia USA (Claxton is in Georgia) are telling me the gov't is buying thousands of tons of Claxton fruit cakes.

No, not for storage in the Kentucky caves for WWIII but to make the wall along the Mexican border.

You don’t know anything!

In my younger days, we had no electricity, no running water, and used the beach as our toilet!

The beach was also our source of very desirable foods!

Anything thrown from ships, coming to the beach, get eaten.

Lots of mostly rotten fruits, or anything else.

Once we found a large round can.

We opened it, and found some yellow powder inside.

We tasted it, and it it tasted fine, so we ate it!

Turned out it was powdered eggs!

No idea how old!

I believe in expiration dates when it comes to the topic of Congress...

Had some bacon this morning, expiry said Dec. 30, 2019. should I be worried ?

Grizz

Well since you're still alive to write about it I guess you're O.K. Seriously before refrigeration was invented folks were smoking hams to preserve.

We were hunting in Zimbabwe years ago.

Walter had a kidney stone, and it passed through, and he was passing blood.

He decided to stay in camp, and asked Roy if he had any antibiotic.

Roy gave him a small bottle, and off we went hunting, leaving Walter at home.

When we got back in the evening, we asked him how he was.

He said he was fine,m but not any thanks to the antibiotic Roy gave him.

He had the bottle in his hands, and showed it to us.

It had expired 2 years previously.

And what is worse, had FOR VETERINARY USE ONLY!

I'd be willing to bet that animal medicine just like dog food undergoes better testing than people products. Besides big pharma would have us believe that meds need to be disposed of after 1 year; wrong!

I believe in a lot of cases expiration dates are simply given to drive future sales; has nothing to do with efficacy of the product.

I totally agree.

My 1/2 gallon of whole milk had an expiration date of Jan 9. I guess it was opened about Jan 2 or 3. I've been smelling and pouring a little looking for lumps daily. Today Feb 4 it started to smell but poured fine. I won't take expiration dates on milk as gospel.

Dave

Same with Cottage Cheese. I opened one sitting in the refrigerator, not realizing that it had an expiration date of three weeks earlier. It was perfectly fine. We finished the whole container and it didn't go bad.

Certainly not on my sauerkraut as it was spoiled when it was bottled. It just takes common sense on the product. Besides can you imagine all the things our ancestors ate + not that long ago?