[JohnE]

The only thing this place doesnt have thus far.

Am I the asshole?

The Frau watches expiration dates on things like a hawk, throwing stuff out the minute it expires, despite my protests that I simply dont care about them (Expiration dates..). Not only that, she doesn't necessarily tell me OR replace the item she trashed. I have asked and asked and asked until I am blue in the face for her to stop this behavior, yet she persists. I get throwing out moldy bread and food products, things that would be dangerous post expiration date etc, but many things simply lay about until they are needed, and if they are needed and not there because they were discarded on account of a somewhat arbitrary date attached by a manufacturer, tossed and not replaced...I dont and wont.

AITA for being pissed about this? Especially when I needed some fucking Nyquill to knock me out last night, had none now face a 20 hour day with a head cold, no sleep and a long commute?

 

[daisycutter]

Stolen from the Atlantic. : For refrigerators across America, the passing of Thanksgiving promises a major purge. The good stuff is the first to go: the mashed potatoes, the buttery remains of stuffing, breakfast-worthy cold pie. But what’s that in the distance, huddled gloomily behind the leftovers? There lie the marginalized relics of pre-Thanksgiving grocery runs. Heavy cream, a few days past its sell-by date. A desolate bag of spinach whose label says it went bad on Sunday. Bread so hard you wonder if it’s from last Thanksgiving.

The alimentarily unthinking, myself included, tend to move right past expiration dates. Last week, I considered the contents of a petite container in the bowels of my fridge that had transcended its best-by date by six weeks. Did I dare to eat a peach yogurt? I sure did, and it was great. In most households, old items don’t stand a chance. It makes sense for people to be wary of expired food, which can occasionally be vile and incite a frenzied dash to the toilet, but food scientists have been telling us for years—if not decades—that expiration dates are mostly useless when it comes to food safety. Indeed, an enormous portion of what we deem trash is perfectly fine to eat: The food-waste nonprofit ReFED estimated that 305 million pounds of food would be needlessly discarded this Thanksgiving.

 

[Changleen]

The only thing this place doesnt have thus far.

Am I the asshole?

The Frau watches expiration dates on things like a hawk, throwing stuff out the minute it expires, despite my protests that I simply dont care about them (Expiration dates..). Not only that, she doesn't necessarily tell me OR replace the item she trashed. I have asked and asked and asked until I am blue in the face for her to stop this behavior, yet she persists. I get throwing out moldy bread and food products, things that would be dangerous post expiration date etc, but many things simply lay about until they are needed, and if they are needed and not there because they were discarded on account of a somewhat arbitrary date attached by a manufacturer, tossed and not replaced...I dont and wont.

AITA for being pissed about this? Especially when I needed some fucking Nyquill to knock me out last night, had none now face a 20 hour day with a head cold, no sleep and a long commute?

We need more details of your interactions with said frauline. Did you state your concerns in a Gentlemanly fashion or did you misplace your spoilt garments?

 

[jimmydean]

My wife is similar about the dates, but she has relaxed a little. But I had no idea NyQuil had a date, I can assure you ours is long past.

@JohnE you aren't an asshole, but there is a story about a zebra and changing spots or something?

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

pick your battles. expiration dates arent a hill to die on.

 

[stoney]

Have same issue with new stuff. I've finally gotten wifey to back down a bit, but still difficult. Leftovers are still a battle.

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

Didn't read.


Yes.

 

[Sandwich]

Wife is certainly hypersensitive about this stuff, but I am as well. I don't think expired salad dressing is going to kill me, but if I've got some ceasar that is now two months past the date on the bottle, I'm probably not using it enough to keep it around, and it may as well be replaced because that likely means it's been in the fridge for a year. I'm way more sensitive about dairy because that is more likely to make you sick, and I don't really care about sodas and processed foods because that stuff will be around after the apocalypse.

Medicine though, probably won't kill you or make you sick, but it simply won't work. You should obey the expiration date because it may not be helping to take expired cough medicine, and tylenol can actually turn (more) toxic.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

Wife is certainly hypersensitive about this stuff, but I am as well. I don't think expired salad dressing is going to kill me, but if I've got some ceasar that is now two months past the date on the bottle, I'm probably not using it enough to keep it around, and it may as well be replaced because that likely means it's been in the fridge for a year. I'm way more sensitive about dairy because that is more likely to make you sick, and I don't really care about sodas and processed foods because that stuff will be around after the apocalypse.

Medicine though, probably won't kill you or make you sick, but it simply won't work. You should obey the expiration date because it may not be helping to take expired cough medicine, and tylenol can actually turn (more) toxic.

Some medicines.

 

[CBJ]

Food expiration dates don’t have much science behind them

Food expiration dates don’t have much science behind them

Inaccurate expiration dates are encouraging people to throw out perfectly good food. Is there a better way to know what's safe to eat?

bigthink.com

 

[canadmos]

I'll go past the expiry date on most things - its a pretty obvious check if its bad; does it look like shit? Does it smell like shit? Does it taste like shit? If yes, its probably shit.

Two things weird me out though for whatever reason - "expired" eggs and milk. Milk could be explained by one of those moments of screwing up and chugging back some rotten chunky stuff, but the eggs? Don't know where that came from.

 

[Full Trucker]

I feel like @Sandwich should chronicle the outcome of his peer review in this thread.

 

[SkaredShtles]

and tylenol can actually turn (more) toxic.

This tickles my Nonsense Alarm, but I'm open to new learning... ya got anything to back this up?

 

[jonKranked]

Food expiration dates don’t have much science behind them

Food expiration dates don’t have much science behind them

Inaccurate expiration dates are encouraging people to throw out perfectly good food. Is there a better way to know what's safe to eat?

bigthink.com

my wife used to work in the food industry. the vast majority of the food that has a date on it isn't an expiration date, it's a freshness date. after that it won't taste as fresh/good/the way its supposed to.

 

[jonKranked]

i should also mention here re: expiration dating. in my field I am very involved with the testing and science used to determine these dates (eg shelf life). there are ISO and ASTM standards on how its done. it is *very* rare for something to actually degrade to the point it's no longer functional / usable immediately after the expiration date. in those cases, a buffer of several months (or even years) is built in.

99.9% of the time an expiration date is set because that's all the data that was collected. something that has a 3 year shelf life only had 3 years of data collected to back that duration up. that's it.

 

[jonKranked]

Medicine though, probably won't kill you or make you sick, but it simply won't work. You should obey the expiration date because it may not be helping to take expired cough medicine, and tylenol can actually turn (more) toxic.

see my point above. very few medicines degrade to the point they are unsafe that quickly. but yes they will lose efficacy.

tylenol doesn't degrade like that over time, it's when you don't store it correctly. storage conditions are a major critical factor in shelf life and degradation.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

see my point above. very few medicines degrade to the point they are unsafe that quickly. but yes they will lose efficacy.

tylenol doesn't degrade like that over time, it's when you don't store it correctly. storage conditions are a major critical factor in shelf life and degradation.

And, of course, the manufacturer publishes nothing to document proper storage conditions (based on a brief web search)

 

[Sandwich]

This tickles my Nonsense Alarm, but I'm open to new learning... ya got anything to back this up?

You know, you're right. I looked into it after your comment, but I recall reading that tylenol can degrade rather rapidly and turns into some nasty byproduct, and I recall it being salicylic acid. Turns out that's not true and I'm full of shit- my apologies.

 

[Sandwich]

I feel like @Sandwich should chronicle the outcome of his peer review in this thread.

At this point I'm not worried about it

 

[jonKranked]

And, of course, the manufacturer publishes nothing to document proper storage conditions (based on a brief web search)

no, they do. it's a legal requirement. for most OTC meds it's a simple as "store at room temperature". there is a USP definition of room temp if you want to be technical about it.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

no, they do. it's a legal requirement. for most OTC meds it's a simple as "store at room temperature". there is a USP definition of room temp if you want to be technical about it.

So how would one find it? Ain't on packaging...

 

[jonKranked]

So how would one find it? Ain't on packaging...

it is. look harder.

 

[Jm_]

I had some sour cream a few months ago that was expired, I didn't realize it at the time. That F-ed me up bad, like made me feel like I was dying on the toilet. I try not to screw around with that. At least with medicine it's usually more about the efficacy lessening...vs it'll turn your insides out...

 

[jonKranked]

I had some sour cream a few months ago that was expired, I didn't realize it at the time. That F-ed me up bad, like made me feel like I was dying on the toilet. I try not to screw around with that. At least with medicine it's usually more about the efficacy lessening...vs it'll turn your insides out...

soft cheeses and milk based dairy are the ones to be most concerned about.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

it is. look harder.

Found it, on reverse side of label. Temp range only, apparently OK to store underwater.

 

[jonKranked]

Found it, on reverse side of label. Temp range only, apparently OK to store underwater.

yea, it's not always easy to find, but it's required by the CFR to be there. the vast majority of OTC drugs are room temp (nerd stuff: per the USP room temp is defined as 20°-25°C/68°-77°F).

lots of vaccines are 2-8°C, a large number of biologics are too.

 

[mandown]

So how would one find it? Ain't on packaging...

If your medication is so old that it doesn’t have a “store in a cool dry place” on the label, then that might be an indication that you should get a new bottle, just to be safe.

 

[SkaredShtles]

You know, you're right. I looked into it after your comment, but I recall reading that tylenol can degrade rather rapidly and turns into some nasty byproduct, and I recall it being salicylic acid. Turns out that's not true and I'm full of shit- my apologies.

No apologies necessary. Useful information is always appreciated...

I had some sour cream a few months ago that was expired, I didn't realize it at the time. That F-ed me up bad, like made me feel like I was dying on the toilet. I try not to screw around with that. At least with medicine it's usually more about the efficacy lessening...vs it'll turn your insides out...

Interesting - I roll the dice on sour cream, heavy cream, yogurt, etc. fairly regularly. Generally speaking, you can tell when that stuff is actually bad just by smelling it, IME.

soft cheeses and milk based dairy are the ones to be most concerned about.

Yeah - generally speaking, if they smell "weird" or taste "off" they get binned.

 

[mandown]

I can only echo what jK has said from his more informed position. From what I’ve seen, most OTC meds have an expiration date that simply indicates the date the manufacturer can no longer vouch for the effectiveness of that product. It generally doesn’t become completely ineffective or toxic.

In the OP case provided, I think it’s reasonable to establish a protocol for something like NyQuil which says - if expired then it gets added to the shopping list for next time, and the old stuff goes out when the new stuff comes in. I’d rather have an expired bottle over no bottle. I don’t think it’s a significant financial burden to occasionally swap out bottles that have been on the shelf for a long period of time. Perhaps buy the smaller/smallest bottle size so that if it goes unused less is thrown out, but you still have enough on hand to keep you comfortable if you suddenly get ill and need more.

 

[jonKranked]

I can only echo what jK has said from his more informed position. From what I’ve seen, most OTC meds have an expiration date that simply indicates the date the manufacturer can no longer vouch for the effectiveness of that product. It generally doesn’t become completely ineffective or toxic.

generally speaking, if the storage conditions are difficult to find it's probably room temp. generally if there ARE special storage requirements, it will be much more prominent on the labeling.

one of my wife's injectable medicines is required to be delivered to our house via cold chain transit.

 

[Jm_]

This is the “expiration dates are a conspiracy”-thread

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

generally speaking, if they smell "weird" or taste "off" they get binned.

All soft cheeses smell weird or taste off to begin with.

 

[SkaredShtles]

All soft cheeses smell weird or taste off to begin with.

 

[StiHacka]

 

[StiHacka]

Some medicines.

 

[jonKranked]

This is the “people don't understand expiration dates”-thread

ftfy

 

[jonKranked]

shelf life testing costs a shit load of money.

 

[mandown]

shelf life testing costs a shit load of money.

And takes a while, I’d bet.

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

And takes a while, I’d bet.

We do 1, 2 or 3 year real time and accelerated shelf life testing, but that's on devices/consumables. Not sure if drugs go through accelerated or not?

Either way, takes a shitload of time and money, likely a magnitude higher for drug testing vs. devices/consumables.

 

[jonKranked]

And takes a while, I’d bet.

real time aging. 3 years shelf life = 3 years storage and testing. 5 years shelf life = 5 years storage and testing. it is also required to include pull points throughout the full duration for testing as well.

the amount of storage space required is enormous. and it has to be a controlled & monitored environment.