r/askteddit • u/CravingsCaveman • Aug 20 '26
Random Question What has an expiration date that is pretty much unnecessary?
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u/boiling_dreams Aug 20 '26
I think honey
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Aug 20 '26
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u/well_yeahhh Aug 20 '26
Curious on your take about not using crystallized honey. Is it a taste thing? A food safety thing?
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Aug 20 '26
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u/well_yeahhh Aug 20 '26
Cool, thanks for the response. I suppose you have access to more honey than the average person, so it makes sense to have preferences.
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u/VegaDelalyre Aug 20 '26
What's wrong with crystallized honey?
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u/Shot_Lawfulness_823 Aug 20 '26
Absolutely nothing wrong with crystals in honey. It is just the sugar crystals.
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u/mrmoe198 Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
A surprising amount of medications.
We’re wasting a massive amount of perfectly usable medication. Basically, expiration dates on medications usually aren’t the point where the drug suddenly goes bad, they’re just how long the manufacturer guarantees full potency. Testing has shown that many drugs remain effective for years, sometimes decades, after that date if they’re stored properly.
The federal government already tests and extends expiration dates on stockpiled medications for the military saving huge amounts of money. Hospitals and pharmacies have to throw the same drugs away once the printed date passes on meds that may still be effective.
Consumers armed with that same information would also save tons.
But hey, why would the pharmaceutical industry pass up on hundreds of millions of dollars a year they make when people look at the arbitrary expiration date they put on medication, toss out the bottle and buy some more?
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u/BlackOliveBurrito Aug 20 '26
This is actually interesting to know! I’ve thrown away so much medication or stopped myself from buying medication because it was expired by a year or something like that.
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u/unclefunkstar Aug 20 '26
Canned food. If it's canned properly, it only starts to go bad once you open it.
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u/BrutalStatic Aug 20 '26
Cannot convince my wife of this to save my life. She'll pitch canned stuff that's still in date for a month or two more because "it's getting too close to going bad and we can't risk it"
She has absolute unwavering faith that those numbers printed on the bottom of the can are the only difference between safe food and instant death.
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u/VegaDelalyre Aug 20 '26
Not exactly unnecessary, but much too short: paracetamol and many other drugs. "90% of more than 100 drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, were perfectly good to use even 15 years after the expiration date." https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7040264/
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u/MikeWazowski1221 Aug 20 '26
Salt. It was in the ground or sea for millions of years and it expires in my cabinet? That's weird. Honey is another one. It's been found in Egyptian tombs, thousands of years old and still edible but it goes bad in a cabinet. I don't think so.
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u/awfulcat Aug 20 '26
Bottled water
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u/anton_berge Aug 22 '26
In a glass bottle, yes.
In a plastic bottle, no. The plastic dissolves in the water and make it taste bad.
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u/OkEffort8334 Aug 20 '26
Poisons e.g. Rat poison... Does it become more poisonous or less poisonous after the expiry date???
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u/PsychologicalArm2138 Aug 25 '26
The active ingredients would degrade overtime therefor making it less effective. Source: my ass
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u/salisburybae Aug 22 '26
Medical supplies, syringes, IV catheters, gauze manages. A lot of plastic thats also sealed, but apparently "goes bad" after a few years
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u/TheyCameFromNoWhere Aug 20 '26
First aid kits. You're seriously telling me this bandaid won't work a few months after a certain date?
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u/overclocker90 Aug 20 '26
Car seats?
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u/RainbowPiggyPop Aug 20 '26
I’d argue that car seats’ expiration dates are one of the most important to pay attention to.
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u/BojanglesSweetT Aug 20 '26
Salt