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some prescription meds not only can lose their potentcy but can also become toxic.
Had an elderly friend who had left over prescription ( over a year old ) when she went to use it again for the same problem, ended up in the hospital for a week ... almost killed her...
Still using the old Schilling/McCormick cans, huh?
I was about to tell you that after 3 moves, I at least have no more of those.
Then decided to check the cupboard....one can of Tumeric
dated 1977
I'll probably have it 20 years from now just in case I EVER find I need Tumeric for a recipe.
Well....last sentence is not so. I opened it,smelled and tasted it.
Not sure what it's supposed to smell or taste like, but I doubt if 'absolutely nothing' is the answer.
Threw it out
Expired daily vitamins, I've taken and am still alive and kickin'. However, for over the counter and prescribed drugs, I would just toss them out.
Long before expiration date existed, we learned how to tell whether an egg is bad or not. Because of this knowledge, I don't toss out eggs when they expired by the date indicated on the carton. Besides the bad smell of rotten eggs, here are a couple of tips on how to tell if the egg is bad.
1) When you break an egg, done carefully, and you see the egg yolk breaks, it's a bad egg. This is so because there is a layer that protects the yolk. As the days go by, this protected layer becomes thinner and thinner. When this layer breaks as you find out when breaking the egg gently, the yolk is no longer protected. Thus, the egg is bad.
2) If you're not planning to break the egg such as in preparing for boiling, you can tell a bad egg if the egg floats in cool water. The ones sinking are still good. This is because the egg shell is porous. As days going by, air will seep into the egg. As air get into the egg, it shorten its life. When enough air is trapped into the egg, it spoils the egg and the egg floats.
I have a big bottle of multivitamin that is expired according to the date stamp. One part of my brain says, toss it, another part says, are you crazy? what would you do? do you stick with that expiration date on food or meds? I am good at using food before the expired date is due, but this bottle is my dilemma
Depends. Certain perscription medicines can be dangerous not that long after they expire - but most canned food is good for a year or 2 beyond the posted expiry date, may not be quite as good but perfectly safe to eat. Likewise vitamins.
You can go somewhat beyond the expiry date but for example chips, if they expired more than a year ago are typically quite stale - the oils have oxidized and taste is off.
Expiration dates have to be conservative because of the range of storage conditions.
Vitamins kept in a refrigerator will stay potent longer than those left in your car. The same goes for foods. Some nameless executive responding to a governmental mandate and slapping a date on a container is not a rational basis for personal inventory decisions.
Aside from baby food it's not the Feds who are requiring expiration dates, but rather corps that want you to think you have to buy a fresh one:
Plenty of things are good beyond their expiration dates. Like whole grain cereals, whole grain crackers, pasta..some of that stuff can last for decades easily. Cookies, chips, pretzels, candies, sugar(why that has an expiration is beyond me) water(like that ever expires!) lol
Other things like dairy, use the smell and taste test. Better to let someone else test it for you in case it tastes yucko.
The things to beware of are the meds. Most of them from over the counter to prescription are good up to 6 months after the expiration date.
Other things like eye drops, ear drops, etc should be tossed. I had an Aunt that used expired ear drops, (they had expired a year before she used them), she went into convulsions, was rushed to the hospital, went into a coma and she was on life support all in one day. They pulled the plug that night since they said there was nothing else they could do. Once I heard about it, I tossed out ALL medicines and now never go beyond the dates on them out of fear.
Do you have any concrete reason to think the ear drops caused the convulsions? That does not make much sense to me.
There are some antibiotics that actually get over-strong with age and should not be used beyond the expiry date though. Although it's not like they become radioactive the day after they expire.
Doesn't the FDA regulate the expiration dates? The FDA is a government agency isn't it? I wouldn't believe or follow any government agency. Remember the old food pyramid? It was a lie. Remember your coaches in high school said to take salt pills to retain liquid? They are guessing and in my opinion science is far from exact. The earth is not flat either.
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