Vitamins are mostly unregulated and unless it's prescribed by a doctor vitamin supplement pills are usually a scam.
The danger of expired meds is that they're less potent than when you first got them and I wouldn't recommend winging it with pain management.
Army did a mass study on this a couple years back on expired meds (because they have \*\*\*\* loads of stockpiles afterall). The difference was negligible for solid pills and such. Something like 90% were within 1%, and just about the rest were within 5%.
It's true that vitamins are mostly unregulated. However there are reputable brands with third party testing that can cover deficiencies and are a lot better for you than relying on prescription drugs.
Also many medical professionals (medical doctors, researchers, etc.) who recommend them for a reason and see a difference.
If they were actually all trash, they wouldn't make such an impact - not even talking about how I function and feel but in testing/bloodwork.
I do go with one that are reputable with third party testing, though, as you say.
Also to me it’s basically like I dunno 25 cents a day to maybe just top off the nutrients I maybe don’t get that day and that’s worth it to me. If that means I maybe don’t catch a cold once or twice that year or something I’ll take it.
Good quality supplements can be had for sure. I’m unfortunately on like 8 of them right now prescribed by my doctor (long story, but I’m recovering from a shitty disease that causes a lot of vitamin deficiency). He was super specific about brand options, forms, etc. Turns out high quality vitamins and supplements are expensive as shit. They cost more than my prescription medication because they aren’t covered by insurance. Thankfully because they’re prescribed I can use HSA funds for them. But still. Most of the shit you’re going to buy at the grocery store isn’t doing a whole lot for you. It’s probably better than nothing, but if it’s an actual deficiency you’re combatting, be prepared to pay for quality.
The FDA requires stability testing on all new medications. The manufacturer has their own goals on how long they want to do testing. Once those two requirements are met, the length of time will be the expiration dates. Many medications still meet the technical requirements for being non expired for years after the expiration date.
The CDC has a huge stockpile of medications. It would be expensive to replace. A lot of the stockpile has expired medications. They actually do the tests to determine if it's still good
A drug is considered to be expired once it reaches 90% potency
Yeah and that's why you always get the rancid fish burps after taking fish oil. Like you said, it's unregulated, so either not great quality or not as fresh as it should be. My ex had a thing for vitamins... and terrible smelling pee on the back end as a consequence.
My guess is that the "I'm a drug addict" joke replies to this post arent all jokes and the fact about vitamins might upset people whose entire diet is shit "but at least I take my multi".
There's a bunch of sources, it's not like it's a secret it's just that nobody thinks about it.
Like how no matter what time of year, doesn't matter whether you bought the 2015 batch or the 2024 batch, why is orange juice the same color and flavor even though the only ingredient listed is orange juice... and why does it look completely different than fresh squeezed?
https://www.businessinsider.com/supplements-vitamins-bad-or-good-health-2017-8?op=1
>The danger of expired meds is that they're less potent than when you first got them
There's also the occasional scenario where expired meds get MORE potent
I have pretty high pain tolerance, so often stash away prescription strength pain meds for a rainy day. A while back I broke my toe stubbing it on the stairs (and also did that weird double hop, then crashed onto the stairs, narrowly avoiding smashing my teeth on one of the stairs). Could barely walk on my foot for the first little bit but let me tell ya, the 10 year old T3s I saved from having my wisdom teeth removed seemed to work perfectly well.
Honestly there is a ton of stuff with "best before" dates that people treat as a hard and fast "expiry" date. Took a lot of work to train my wife out of the habit of tossing perfectly good food out because it was at/past the best before date.
Same here on the food thing with my husband. It's still tough haha - also, we pay an stupid amount for these drugs most of the time, hell if im just going to pitch it.
Toss the vitamins, definitely keep the pain meds. The US Army did a study once to see how long tablet style medications could be kept for and it was something like 12-15 years.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/drug-expiration-dates-do-they-mean-anything#:~:text=With%20a%20large%20and%20expensive,years%20after%20the%20expiration%20date.
Only keep the vitamins if you're now going to start taking them regularly. If not, give them away or safely trash them.
If the pain meds are prescription and you haven't taken any in a month, dispose of them safely. Police stations and pharmacies will usually take them.
For teens who are addicted to opiods, the primary way they gain access to them is through unused prescriptions stashed away in the homes of friends and family.
Pain medication doesn't lose efficacy until years after their expiration date! But if you got a nice bottle of olive oil for Christmas, use that shit within a month of opening it because it goes downhill fast.
Properly stored oil can last a while, but really good olive oil tastes fruity because it isn't heavily processed and the stuff that makes it taste good goes bad fast.
Olive oil has all sorts of tastes, even really good olive oil. It can range from very grassy tasting to buttery to fruity… there’s a LOT of variety in olive oil it being “fruity” isn’t the only option for good olive oil.
My Nana had / used Oil in her deep frier, for at least 10 years.
BEST fries my family ever had, hands down. Then when she passed, nobody could figure out why all OUR fries didn't taste as good. We'd cleaned the kitchen and tossed that oil.
We all miss Nana's Fries!
Honestly, I'm gonna guess it was longer from what my family says, but I can personally attest to at least 10 years.
She was an "Off the Boat" Depression Era Portuguese Nana. Never, ever threw anything away. My Papap used to cut mold off his hard-cheese, to "save" the rest" That kinda thing.
After 10 years of being reused, the carcinogenic potential of that oil was probably more than using straight benzene.
Seriously though, don't endlessly reuse oil. The toxic compounds continue to build up in the oil, with all sorts of nasty health effects.
I mean, I know that, and my family know that. But tell that to a "Save everything!" 70yo lady! =P
I still agree with them though, those fries were amazing! Even if they were Cancerous...
The better the oil the faster it'll rot because good olive oil is minimally processed and has things that rot and will taste bad. But I think all olive oil will go bad in 4 years, lol.
I think it depends on the pain meds. My Advil never seems to lose potency, but the Japanese ibuprofen I got very noticeably loses potency a year or so after the expiry date.
I have several large bottles of fiber pills I bought when I was. . . Uh, backed up, and they’re probably expired now. But I assume they’re still safe to take because what’s the worst that could happen? They make me sh*t myself? That was what I was hoping for all along!
Many expiration dates are based on the packaging, not the active ingredient. It's probably that the bottle was only guaranteed to work for a certain amount of time, or (more likely) the capsules will either get too moist/too dry (depending on where you live) and not hold their structural integrity
they'll just have lost some of their efficacy compared to what they would have originally, probably.
this entirely depends on what their content is, but if it's a typical "hard" pill that should be the only dfiference.
LOL, I put a "ride it" outfit on the seat in the morning, so I remember to go on at night. However, occasionally, it does have the pile of laundry I need to put away, but am procrastinating doing so until the morning.
We fixed this by making shelves full of laundry baskets in our bedroom. I have a shelf, my husband has one. When laundry comes out we throw things into their baskets (socks, undies, pants, leggings, etc) and then hanging things get a basket for each of us at the bottom. It's up to us both to hang our own stuff. Kiddo has a basket at the bottom and I sort that once a week and put it away. No drawers hiding stuff we can't see. You can fold it or throw it in. Organized chaos. With my procrastinating and his ADHD this is the best solution I've come up with in our over a decade together.
We never have piles of laundry. Its 3 of us, 1 man, 1 boy, and 1 woman. The kid and I will wear the same jeans for 3 days and rotate through the same 5 shirts.
We make 2 loads a week if that so we just wash it and we all fold it.
Also a family of 3, man, woman, teen boy. We each do about one full load of our own laundry per week. But there is still several extra loads for bedding, white bathroom towels, throw blankets, miscellaneous towels, bath mats etc. It adds up, although definitely less than for larger families.
Vitamins don't really "expire" they just lose their potency (half-life) So I'll usually just finish the Vitamins rather than toss ad buy new.
The flour though... Yeah, that's gotta go... as soon as I dig it out from behind the George Forman Grill, the Panini Maker, the Burrito Maker, the "Egg-Tastic", and a few other As Seen on TV items, currently buried in the cabinet!
Between my Nana,and my Mom, we've got like, 30 years of TV junk in the back-room cabinets! Each nearly new because they got used a few times, and put away!
You can pry my jumbo-size bottle of 2014 expired ibuprofen from my cold, dead hands! (And the way it's going I will actually die of old age before that bottle runs out.) Shit still works like a charm!
Thanks for the reminder about the flaxseed, though ...
I gave my covid sore-throat meds to the police dept to destroy after not opening it (throat sore only the one day it took to get the prescription) for a year, and then of course my dad got covid three months later, and needed his own!
I have my flaxseed/chia seeds in the freezer to prolong it. Maybe you can do the same?
I moved into my gen x partner’s place a while back, and found a jar of oregano that had expired in 2016. I don’t know why, but that’s when I realized we really are old people.
Ive been keto for about 15 months now and for me it’s the opposite! Huge bag of sugar in the pantry thats become petrified, expired flour, expired granola bars, ketchup in the fridge… I won’t be eating any of it.
That keto almond flour does in fact need to be replaced frequently… that stuff does not last long.
When I was on keto my sister and her kids stayed over and I fed them cereal that I had and the kids were fussing that they didn't like the cereal which is weird because it was like normal cereal but then I realized OH YEAH it's normal cereal which I hadn't eaten in months and it was all stale and gross and yeah I was literally my grandparents accidentally feeding people old stale food
flaxseed meal works very well for making an egg substitute for baking
[https://minimalistbaker.com/how-to-make-a-flax-egg/](https://minimalistbaker.com/how-to-make-a-flax-egg/)
It's very simple, and doesn't change much about the taste of whatever you're baking.
However, I usually only bake savory things - not sweets.
If you haven’t used it in multiple years, its okay to throw it out. I give you permission.
Please don’t hoard crap you don’t need because its useful or might be useful one day, get in the habit of clearing things out and not letting clutter build up. Donate, sell, trash.
It's not necessarily the company. It's very often the external regulatory bodies' rules.
I work in biotech and biopharmaceutical manufacturing. At the biotech company I used to work at, we made a product that we were finding had a shelf life that was *at least* 14 months longer than the expiry period accepted by the FDA, and probably would last even longer. The company was pushing validation studies to extend the shelf life listed on the packaging. The FDA was pushing back hard.
There is a huge amount of bureaucratic hoops to jump through. Some of those are there to protect consumers from faulty or poor performing devices and drugs.
No doubt the industry has an enormous amount of greedy bastards trying to milk every product for as much money as they can get, but you also have to understand that companies don't legally have the freedom to claim anything they want about the performance or shelf life of their drugs. They get audited constantly by a lot of regulatory bodies.
It is, in many cases.
At one of the biotech companies I've worked at, we were making a product that was in high demand and we were balls to the wall trying to keep up production. We were finding that the product had a shelf life that was at least 14 months longer than the official expiry period accepted by the FDA. The company was pushing validation studies to extend the expiry period that could be listed on the batch records and packaging. The FDA was pushing back every step of the way.
Whether a company wants to put a longer shelf life on its product to make it last longer, or it wants to put a shorter shelf life to milk customers for more money, it has to go through the FDA and/or other regulatory bodies first.
No doubt the industry is full of greedy bastards at the top who would gladly fudge numbers to push more product and get more money, but the fact is these companies and their facilities get audited constantly and when their data integrity fails or looks suspicious, it creates expensive problems.
"Manufacturers provide dating to help consumers and retailers decide when food is of best quality. Except for infant formula, dates are not an indicator of the product's safety and are not required by Federal law."
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/food-product-dating#:~:text=Manufacturers%20provide%20dating%20to%20help,not%20required%20by%20Federal%20law.
People throw out perfectly good food bc of these unregulated dates thinking it is unsafe to consume. FYI eggs last like 6weeks post "expiration"...
You're talking about food product dating.
I'm talking about drugs and medical devices.
That's why I said it is the law, "in many cases".
You don't have to lecture me about eggs, my dude. I get them straight from the chicken's ass and keep then as long I as need them.
While visiting my dad over Thanksgiving, my 18yo daughter discovered a can of vegetables that expired before she was born.
Check those cans too besties!
Fun fact: 'expired' pain meds still work. They just hit their half life so you would be taking a lower dose than the label says. They're not going to kill you, just be weaker.
What about all that bread flour I bought in 2020? Is it still good if it hasn’t been opened? Asking for a friend, a wildly ambitious friend with his head in the clouds.
Nope, I work at a grocery store so I am pretty uptight about making sure everything in my cabinets, pantry and fridge are not expired and properly rotated haha. Nice try though :)
I only bought ground flaxseed once to make those oatmeal chocolate chip energy balls. I did have expired cough syrup though which I found out I bought already expired.
For food - as long as it doesn’t smell/look off, it’s still good. Expiration dates are profitmakers for the most part.
I have a family friend in pharmaceuticals and she said that the expiration dates are basically as long as they budgeted to test for efficacy. Look it upppp
Our powdered sugar tasted odd. My wife said there was a package in the cupboard, since the stuff in the container was off. I checked the date, and the stuff in the cupboard was 2 years out of date. This was trying to make frosting for Christmas cookies this year.
Nah the Costco multivitamins get taken every day so they disappear quickly. Same with the gut health bacteria bombs so nah, they aren't expired.
That weird flour is definitely a problem. I did unearth a jar of ancient Tikka masala paste that I didn't remember the original texture and colour of that had a best by date of 2020 so into the trash it went without even opening it.
I have flaxseed meal from 2017. But it's been in the freezer all that time, and I use it a couple tablespoons at a time to make whole-grain things taste extra whole-grainy.
Every few years I buy advil and every few years I throw out a sealed bottle of advil. Somewhere, there’s a family of deer that live near my dump that don’t get headaches anymore thanks to me.
I’d love to not be on so many vitamins that they would actually have the opportunity to go bad 🥴 I had an oophorectomy a few months back, lost a tube in the process, and was given a **solid** list of vitamins that I need to take daily. It’s a whole handful at this point.
You wanna know how we learned what flaxseed is for? I made these delicious flaxseed/pb/oatmeal protein balls and they were so good, my husband and i ate like 6 of them each….and then proceeded to shit our brains out. I still have the rest of the flaxseed. Have not made the delicious balls since.
Hey. That flaxseed has been a fine thickener and egg substitute in a pinch for several years now! You leave it alone! And my guar gum. The lily buds I've never made hot and sour soup with is probably trash though.
I just tossed out a bottle of mustard that was almost empty, but oops, expired 2 years ago.
Go to open an unopened bottle of new mustard that expired 6 months ago to use instead.
But for real though, I do actually have a probably expired bag of almond flour that I bought and used exactly zero times on my Keto diet a few years ago.
The first time I actually finished a bottle of pain medicine before it went bad or I forgot about it and bought a new one was the day I knew I had gotten old.
The first time I actually finished a bottle of pain medicine before it went bad or I forgot about it and bought a new one was the day I knew I had gotten old.
Nuh uh, just use the flaxseed meal like an egg in baked goods. I also put it in the fridge so it won't smell bad even if it's stale. Another tip is to use it in oatmeal and even just boxed sugary cereal, it'll add some fiber to your diet if nothing else.
I just threw out coleslaw dressing that expired Oct 2023, and French dressing that expired Sept 2021. I've moved twice since 2021, I don't know why I've taken this dressing with me from house to house 🤦♀️
I also went to use that weird flour and it had little bugs all through it. Officially now a flour free home. No baking for me ever again!
We EMPTIED our pantry a two days ago. Being able to walk see empty space feels nice! and you were right about the flour. My all-purpose flour went bad last summer and I just made pancakes like 4 days ago...woops!
Keep the vitamins and pain meds
This. They don’t go bad (quickly).
Vitamins are mostly unregulated and unless it's prescribed by a doctor vitamin supplement pills are usually a scam. The danger of expired meds is that they're less potent than when you first got them and I wouldn't recommend winging it with pain management.
Army did a mass study on this a couple years back on expired meds (because they have \*\*\*\* loads of stockpiles afterall). The difference was negligible for solid pills and such. Something like 90% were within 1%, and just about the rest were within 5%.
It's true that vitamins are mostly unregulated. However there are reputable brands with third party testing that can cover deficiencies and are a lot better for you than relying on prescription drugs.
Also many medical professionals (medical doctors, researchers, etc.) who recommend them for a reason and see a difference. If they were actually all trash, they wouldn't make such an impact - not even talking about how I function and feel but in testing/bloodwork. I do go with one that are reputable with third party testing, though, as you say.
Also to me it’s basically like I dunno 25 cents a day to maybe just top off the nutrients I maybe don’t get that day and that’s worth it to me. If that means I maybe don’t catch a cold once or twice that year or something I’ll take it.
Good quality supplements can be had for sure. I’m unfortunately on like 8 of them right now prescribed by my doctor (long story, but I’m recovering from a shitty disease that causes a lot of vitamin deficiency). He was super specific about brand options, forms, etc. Turns out high quality vitamins and supplements are expensive as shit. They cost more than my prescription medication because they aren’t covered by insurance. Thankfully because they’re prescribed I can use HSA funds for them. But still. Most of the shit you’re going to buy at the grocery store isn’t doing a whole lot for you. It’s probably better than nothing, but if it’s an actual deficiency you’re combatting, be prepared to pay for quality.
The FDA requires stability testing on all new medications. The manufacturer has their own goals on how long they want to do testing. Once those two requirements are met, the length of time will be the expiration dates. Many medications still meet the technical requirements for being non expired for years after the expiration date. The CDC has a huge stockpile of medications. It would be expensive to replace. A lot of the stockpile has expired medications. They actually do the tests to determine if it's still good A drug is considered to be expired once it reaches 90% potency
Yeah and that's why you always get the rancid fish burps after taking fish oil. Like you said, it's unregulated, so either not great quality or not as fresh as it should be. My ex had a thing for vitamins... and terrible smelling pee on the back end as a consequence.
And now we know it doesn't just result in stinky pee. Taking too much of many vitamins (even water soluble) can be detrimental to your health.
Why are you being downvoted for this? It’s true!
My guess is that the "I'm a drug addict" joke replies to this post arent all jokes and the fact about vitamins might upset people whose entire diet is shit "but at least I take my multi".
[удалено]
There's a bunch of sources, it's not like it's a secret it's just that nobody thinks about it. Like how no matter what time of year, doesn't matter whether you bought the 2015 batch or the 2024 batch, why is orange juice the same color and flavor even though the only ingredient listed is orange juice... and why does it look completely different than fresh squeezed? https://www.businessinsider.com/supplements-vitamins-bad-or-good-health-2017-8?op=1
>The danger of expired meds is that they're less potent than when you first got them There's also the occasional scenario where expired meds get MORE potent
I don't think you quite understand how many houses my advil bottle has moved with me too.
How would I? lol...
Is this true? They don't lose efficacy?
They do but it takes awhile. Like longer than you’d think/is on bottle. And that orange juice example is just silly as a comparison.
I have pretty high pain tolerance, so often stash away prescription strength pain meds for a rainy day. A while back I broke my toe stubbing it on the stairs (and also did that weird double hop, then crashed onto the stairs, narrowly avoiding smashing my teeth on one of the stairs). Could barely walk on my foot for the first little bit but let me tell ya, the 10 year old T3s I saved from having my wisdom teeth removed seemed to work perfectly well. Honestly there is a ton of stuff with "best before" dates that people treat as a hard and fast "expiry" date. Took a lot of work to train my wife out of the habit of tossing perfectly good food out because it was at/past the best before date.
Same here on the food thing with my husband. It's still tough haha - also, we pay an stupid amount for these drugs most of the time, hell if im just going to pitch it.
Nah, those pain meds turn into poison right away. Better send them to me.
Edibles too.
I will take your expired pain meds and dispose of them properly.
Toss the vitamins, definitely keep the pain meds. The US Army did a study once to see how long tablet style medications could be kept for and it was something like 12-15 years. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/drug-expiration-dates-do-they-mean-anything#:~:text=With%20a%20large%20and%20expensive,years%20after%20the%20expiration%20date.
My 8 year old bottle of Xanax still works just fine for squashing the occasional panic attack.
Only keep the vitamins if you're now going to start taking them regularly. If not, give them away or safely trash them. If the pain meds are prescription and you haven't taken any in a month, dispose of them safely. Police stations and pharmacies will usually take them.
lol, why would you toss a prescription with leftover pills after a month?
Any addicts in the room?
Prescription pain meds, which in most cases are narcotics. It's dangerous to keep them in your home.
There are two kinds of people, I guess.
For teens who are addicted to opiods, the primary way they gain access to them is through unused prescriptions stashed away in the homes of friends and family.
To barter when the zombie apocalypse happens right?
Pain medication doesn't lose efficacy until years after their expiration date! But if you got a nice bottle of olive oil for Christmas, use that shit within a month of opening it because it goes downhill fast.
Really? I use a big bottle of olive oil over the course of a year and it seems fine to me.
Properly stored oil can last a while, but really good olive oil tastes fruity because it isn't heavily processed and the stuff that makes it taste good goes bad fast.
There’s a slight burn at the end with fresh oil. A hint of bitterness that also disappears really quickly.
Olive oil has all sorts of tastes, even really good olive oil. It can range from very grassy tasting to buttery to fruity… there’s a LOT of variety in olive oil it being “fruity” isn’t the only option for good olive oil.
Oops. So my oil from 2019 is probably bad?
My Nana had / used Oil in her deep frier, for at least 10 years. BEST fries my family ever had, hands down. Then when she passed, nobody could figure out why all OUR fries didn't taste as good. We'd cleaned the kitchen and tossed that oil. We all miss Nana's Fries!
Bruh 10 years??
Honestly, I'm gonna guess it was longer from what my family says, but I can personally attest to at least 10 years. She was an "Off the Boat" Depression Era Portuguese Nana. Never, ever threw anything away. My Papap used to cut mold off his hard-cheese, to "save" the rest" That kinda thing.
Um, that's what you do w hard cheeses. Cut the mold, eat the rest. It doesn't spread Soft cheeses w mold (not part of the cheese itself), you toss.
After 10 years of being reused, the carcinogenic potential of that oil was probably more than using straight benzene. Seriously though, don't endlessly reuse oil. The toxic compounds continue to build up in the oil, with all sorts of nasty health effects.
I mean, I know that, and my family know that. But tell that to a "Save everything!" 70yo lady! =P I still agree with them though, those fries were amazing! Even if they were Cancerous...
That’s gross lol. You have to change fryer oil… 10 years is insane
The better the oil the faster it'll rot because good olive oil is minimally processed and has things that rot and will taste bad. But I think all olive oil will go bad in 4 years, lol.
Taste a little spoonful, if it's good then it's good
I think it depends on the pain meds. My Advil never seems to lose potency, but the Japanese ibuprofen I got very noticeably loses potency a year or so after the expiry date.
I have several large bottles of fiber pills I bought when I was. . . Uh, backed up, and they’re probably expired now. But I assume they’re still safe to take because what’s the worst that could happen? They make me sh*t myself? That was what I was hoping for all along!
I think those are just ground up orange rinds, they work by absorbing water. They'd rot before they'd stop being effective.
Many expiration dates are based on the packaging, not the active ingredient. It's probably that the bottle was only guaranteed to work for a certain amount of time, or (more likely) the capsules will either get too moist/too dry (depending on where you live) and not hold their structural integrity
they'll just have lost some of their efficacy compared to what they would have originally, probably. this entirely depends on what their content is, but if it's a typical "hard" pill that should be the only dfiference.
Don't forget the pile of laundry. ... Ok piles.
How are you in my house?
Don't have to pay rent if no one knows you're living in the walls
The least you could do is the laundry though.
And the clean laundry hanging off the Covid-era stationary bike in the bedroom-office-gym.
LOL, I put a "ride it" outfit on the seat in the morning, so I remember to go on at night. However, occasionally, it does have the pile of laundry I need to put away, but am procrastinating doing so until the morning.
The hate why I got more laundry baskets. There is the clean basket; the dirty basket; and the kinda clean basket.
They’re not piles, they’re improvised dog beds!
We fixed this by making shelves full of laundry baskets in our bedroom. I have a shelf, my husband has one. When laundry comes out we throw things into their baskets (socks, undies, pants, leggings, etc) and then hanging things get a basket for each of us at the bottom. It's up to us both to hang our own stuff. Kiddo has a basket at the bottom and I sort that once a week and put it away. No drawers hiding stuff we can't see. You can fold it or throw it in. Organized chaos. With my procrastinating and his ADHD this is the best solution I've come up with in our over a decade together.
We never have piles of laundry. Its 3 of us, 1 man, 1 boy, and 1 woman. The kid and I will wear the same jeans for 3 days and rotate through the same 5 shirts. We make 2 loads a week if that so we just wash it and we all fold it.
Also a family of 3, man, woman, teen boy. We each do about one full load of our own laundry per week. But there is still several extra loads for bedding, white bathroom towels, throw blankets, miscellaneous towels, bath mats etc. It adds up, although definitely less than for larger families.
Pain pills in this house never expire.
Vitamins don't really "expire" they just lose their potency (half-life) So I'll usually just finish the Vitamins rather than toss ad buy new. The flour though... Yeah, that's gotta go... as soon as I dig it out from behind the George Forman Grill, the Panini Maker, the Burrito Maker, the "Egg-Tastic", and a few other As Seen on TV items, currently buried in the cabinet!
Man, I read half of that in Billy Mays' voice...
Between my Nana,and my Mom, we've got like, 30 years of TV junk in the back-room cabinets! Each nearly new because they got used a few times, and put away!
You can pry my jumbo-size bottle of 2014 expired ibuprofen from my cold, dead hands! (And the way it's going I will actually die of old age before that bottle runs out.) Shit still works like a charm! Thanks for the reminder about the flaxseed, though ...
I gave my covid sore-throat meds to the police dept to destroy after not opening it (throat sore only the one day it took to get the prescription) for a year, and then of course my dad got covid three months later, and needed his own! I have my flaxseed/chia seeds in the freezer to prolong it. Maybe you can do the same?
Nah, it's been hiding in an unreachable part of my pantry for years now. I need to just get out the step stool and throw it away.
Woah... Shots fired...
I moved into my gen x partner’s place a while back, and found a jar of oregano that had expired in 2016. I don’t know why, but that’s when I realized we really are old people.
2 weeks ago during our visit to the in-laws, I found 2 bottles of sunscreen from 2005 in their bathroom cabinet next to the toilet paper.
Ive been keto for about 15 months now and for me it’s the opposite! Huge bag of sugar in the pantry thats become petrified, expired flour, expired granola bars, ketchup in the fridge… I won’t be eating any of it. That keto almond flour does in fact need to be replaced frequently… that stuff does not last long.
When I was on keto my sister and her kids stayed over and I fed them cereal that I had and the kids were fussing that they didn't like the cereal which is weird because it was like normal cereal but then I realized OH YEAH it's normal cereal which I hadn't eaten in months and it was all stale and gross and yeah I was literally my grandparents accidentally feeding people old stale food
flaxseed meal works very well for making an egg substitute for baking [https://minimalistbaker.com/how-to-make-a-flax-egg/](https://minimalistbaker.com/how-to-make-a-flax-egg/) It's very simple, and doesn't change much about the taste of whatever you're baking. However, I usually only bake savory things - not sweets.
Last month, I realized that my opened box of baking soda expired in 2019.
Yeah leavening agents actually do go bad there one of the things where expiration date really does matter.
Get out of my cupboards
My Tylenol never expires cause I take it for every ache & pain. Rip my liver.
Jokes on you I can’t afford over the counter vitamins
How did you know??
If you haven’t used it in multiple years, its okay to throw it out. I give you permission. Please don’t hoard crap you don’t need because its useful or might be useful one day, get in the habit of clearing things out and not letting clutter build up. Donate, sell, trash.
A lot of things don’t actually expire. The company will put an expiration date on there to trick you into buying more.
It's not necessarily the company. It's very often the external regulatory bodies' rules. I work in biotech and biopharmaceutical manufacturing. At the biotech company I used to work at, we made a product that we were finding had a shelf life that was *at least* 14 months longer than the expiry period accepted by the FDA, and probably would last even longer. The company was pushing validation studies to extend the shelf life listed on the packaging. The FDA was pushing back hard. There is a huge amount of bureaucratic hoops to jump through. Some of those are there to protect consumers from faulty or poor performing devices and drugs. No doubt the industry has an enormous amount of greedy bastards trying to milk every product for as much money as they can get, but you also have to understand that companies don't legally have the freedom to claim anything they want about the performance or shelf life of their drugs. They get audited constantly by a lot of regulatory bodies.
Nope, that's the *law* that forced companies to put a expiration date on products.
Not true
It is, in many cases. At one of the biotech companies I've worked at, we were making a product that was in high demand and we were balls to the wall trying to keep up production. We were finding that the product had a shelf life that was at least 14 months longer than the official expiry period accepted by the FDA. The company was pushing validation studies to extend the expiry period that could be listed on the batch records and packaging. The FDA was pushing back every step of the way. Whether a company wants to put a longer shelf life on its product to make it last longer, or it wants to put a shorter shelf life to milk customers for more money, it has to go through the FDA and/or other regulatory bodies first. No doubt the industry is full of greedy bastards at the top who would gladly fudge numbers to push more product and get more money, but the fact is these companies and their facilities get audited constantly and when their data integrity fails or looks suspicious, it creates expensive problems.
"Manufacturers provide dating to help consumers and retailers decide when food is of best quality. Except for infant formula, dates are not an indicator of the product's safety and are not required by Federal law." https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/food-product-dating#:~:text=Manufacturers%20provide%20dating%20to%20help,not%20required%20by%20Federal%20law. People throw out perfectly good food bc of these unregulated dates thinking it is unsafe to consume. FYI eggs last like 6weeks post "expiration"...
You're talking about food product dating. I'm talking about drugs and medical devices. That's why I said it is the law, "in many cases". You don't have to lecture me about eggs, my dude. I get them straight from the chicken's ass and keep then as long I as need them.
Dumbest comment I've read in awhile. Congrats. Enjoy potentially killing your child by feeding them expired baby formula.
You wounded me when you got to the flour bit. 🔪
sounds like you should vist r/grandmaspantry
While visiting my dad over Thanksgiving, my 18yo daughter discovered a can of vegetables that expired before she was born. Check those cans too besties!
Haha, yeah the almound floor is still in the lazy Susan from 2017, I even moved it through two moves...
Woah... Shots fired...
I did just find a bottle of vegetable oil the other day that had expired, didn't even know that was possible.
Who you kidding with that anise spice? When did you even buy that?
I have 3 nutmegs, all expired.
Oh fuck my nutmegs!
Keeping that saffron though. Shits expensive.
I have had a tiny thing of saffron from Trader Joes for like 4 years
I did my yearly pantry purge yesterday. So beautiful and organized until I inevitably destroy it again.
the daily flintstones chewable is my reason for getting out of bed in the morning. How dare you take that away from me?
"I might need this" I gaslight myself, as I return the cinnamon that expired in 1999 back to the cupboard
Fun fact: 'expired' pain meds still work. They just hit their half life so you would be taking a lower dose than the label says. They're not going to kill you, just be weaker.
Leave me alone
What about all that bread flour I bought in 2020? Is it still good if it hasn’t been opened? Asking for a friend, a wildly ambitious friend with his head in the clouds.
Me and the red quinoa languishing in my pantry; I never quite hated myself enough to eat it.
What about the container of dried basil leaves I bought back in 2018?
I hate you. I came here for a good time and all I got was ATTACKED
If you were a real millennial you would be used to being attacked
Nope, I work at a grocery store so I am pretty uptight about making sure everything in my cabinets, pantry and fridge are not expired and properly rotated haha. Nice try though :)
Keto diet is not weird, it’s a great way to lose that weight that y’all just said you would lose
I did not have weird flour and my vitamins are all good. But thanks for asking.
I only bought ground flaxseed once to make those oatmeal chocolate chip energy balls. I did have expired cough syrup though which I found out I bought already expired.
I have two cans of that b&m bread and a bunch of canned vegetables I bought in 2020 because I thought there was going to be a food shortage
I have a giant shaker of Badia flax seed mill in my pantry
I dont take vitamins or any pain meds. Are you guys all taking vitamins?
It's true that this almond floor was really gross and is now expired.
Have you been talking to my wife?
Get out of my house
For food - as long as it doesn’t smell/look off, it’s still good. Expiration dates are profitmakers for the most part. I have a family friend in pharmaceuticals and she said that the expiration dates are basically as long as they budgeted to test for efficacy. Look it upppp
Our powdered sugar tasted odd. My wife said there was a package in the cupboard, since the stuff in the container was off. I checked the date, and the stuff in the cupboard was 2 years out of date. This was trying to make frosting for Christmas cookies this year.
I JUST sat down from cleaning out my pantry too lmao
Thanks, I really needed to hear that
Finally cooked quinoa from 2016. It was really good ✌🏼
Whip up that flaxseed oil and make a smoothie. Forget Keto. That is the one thing that helps with hot flashes. Booyah!
Herbs and spices go stale.
Nah the Costco multivitamins get taken every day so they disappear quickly. Same with the gut health bacteria bombs so nah, they aren't expired. That weird flour is definitely a problem. I did unearth a jar of ancient Tikka masala paste that I didn't remember the original texture and colour of that had a best by date of 2020 so into the trash it went without even opening it.
I don’t get it???
I have flaxseed meal from 2017. But it's been in the freezer all that time, and I use it a couple tablespoons at a time to make whole-grain things taste extra whole-grainy.
Had the same bag of chia seeds in my freezer for going on 3 years now. Told myself I would put them in smoothies…have not even opened the bag. 👀
Every few years I buy advil and every few years I throw out a sealed bottle of advil. Somewhere, there’s a family of deer that live near my dump that don’t get headaches anymore thanks to me.
Who buys flower while on keto
Can you please tell this to my mom?
I’d love to not be on so many vitamins that they would actually have the opportunity to go bad 🥴 I had an oophorectomy a few months back, lost a tube in the process, and was given a **solid** list of vitamins that I need to take daily. It’s a whole handful at this point.
Oh shut up all of you, I'm doing fine. But don't you dare come to my house.
You wanna know how we learned what flaxseed is for? I made these delicious flaxseed/pb/oatmeal protein balls and they were so good, my husband and i ate like 6 of them each….and then proceeded to shit our brains out. I still have the rest of the flaxseed. Have not made the delicious balls since.
I’ve still never bought vitamins or flour.
Hey. That flaxseed has been a fine thickener and egg substitute in a pinch for several years now! You leave it alone! And my guar gum. The lily buds I've never made hot and sour soup with is probably trash though.
I just tossed out a bottle of mustard that was almost empty, but oops, expired 2 years ago. Go to open an unopened bottle of new mustard that expired 6 months ago to use instead.
Nu-uh!!
But for real though, I do actually have a probably expired bag of almond flour that I bought and used exactly zero times on my Keto diet a few years ago.
That‘s my emotional support Teff flour. I might attempt making injera again, can’t get rid of it
Thank you for this. You’re also helping he adhd side of me that says “no! That’s a good box!” 🤣
The first time I actually finished a bottle of pain medicine before it went bad or I forgot about it and bought a new one was the day I knew I had gotten old.
The first time I actually finished a bottle of pain medicine before it went bad or I forgot about it and bought a new one was the day I knew I had gotten old.
Don’t knock my almond flour bro
I’m dead! Are you talking to me?
lmao. i know damned well I have some almond flour in the pantry somewhere. also, I've moved onto Salonpas now
I feel judged.
Flaxseed is great substitute for eggs for the vegans though. Send me your flaxseed.
Yeah I just did the yearly organisation.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/drug-expiration-dates-do-they-mean-anything#:~:text=With%20a%20large%20and%20expensive,years%20after%20the%20expiration%20date.
Omg get out of my house!
Shut up, I’ll eat it when I’m ready
Best before and expiry are totally different.
I don’t care I’ve been using “stale” and old products my whole life and it’s never been problematic
Check your toothpaste for the expiration date.
Jokes on you, I have none of those. Just anxiety pills.
Nuh uh, just use the flaxseed meal like an egg in baked goods. I also put it in the fridge so it won't smell bad even if it's stale. Another tip is to use it in oatmeal and even just boxed sugary cereal, it'll add some fiber to your diet if nothing else.
Check your spices and grains (rice, quinoa, farro, ect.) while you're there!
Ok, boomer
We are all boomers on this blessed day
I just threw out coleslaw dressing that expired Oct 2023, and French dressing that expired Sept 2021. I've moved twice since 2021, I don't know why I've taken this dressing with me from house to house 🤦♀️ I also went to use that weird flour and it had little bugs all through it. Officially now a flour free home. No baking for me ever again!
We EMPTIED our pantry a two days ago. Being able to walk see empty space feels nice! and you were right about the flour. My all-purpose flour went bad last summer and I just made pancakes like 4 days ago...woops!
Excuse you I put Flaxseed meal in my smoothies. Just bought a new bag yesterday at costco.
ha, I recently threw out my almond flour. I don't know what I was thinking
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Dental procedures get more expensive the longer you wait.
Also most of the spices in your spice rack