expiration dates

[MTchick]

I gave myself a little cut today on the garden fence- nothing serious at all. I was putting some antibiotic ointment on the scratch after I washed it off and randomly I thought... I wonder if this stuff expires?

Yes, it did. The tube crimp says: "Expires 1/2001." Perhaps I ought to have thought to look at it... hmmm... SIX years ago.

Do you think it actually doesn't work anymore? Am I smearing myself with useless goo?

Either way, it made me laugh. Given that expiration date, I think that ointment has lived in a medicine cabinet in a minimum of 7 states as well as 3 separate countries. I think I'll buy a new tube this weekend, just in case.

-MTchick

 

[silkiechicken]

I have no idea what happens when it expires. I just looked at some tubes lying in the medicine cabinet and expirations dates are as follows: 1982, 1992, 1994, 1999, 2003... Geez, that first one is before I was born.. and in a metal tube. Looks like nobody uses these things here. Good ol soap and water

 

[cookinmom]

Yeah, maybe it's time to spring for a new tube!

 

[rufus]

Uh, I have in my medicine chest a bottle of Tincture of Merthiolate my mom bought God only knows when. She died in 1976; the price on the bottle is 26 cents. I am still using it, and it seems to still work.

Also, I have a box of Hershey's Cocoa she bought back in the 1930's. It has the NRA sticker still on it. I used it about a year ago, and the cake came out fine.

I think it depends upon the product and how it has been stored.

Rufus