# Goodbye cruel world! I've eaten an expired Altoid **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 18, 2008, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784 "2008-05-18T20:10:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/1 "2008-05-18T20:10:39Z")
I was looking in the cupboard for something when I came across a tin of Altoids mints. I can’t remember the last time I bought Altoids, and I have no idea what they were doing there. I popped one in my mouth and offered one to my husband and daughter. As my husband took one, my daughter exclaimed in horror, “Those expired in 2006!” Sure enough, marked on the side of the tin, it says, “Best when used by 14 May 06”. However, they are just as good and “curiously strong” as they probably were brand-new. If they would have been better two years ago, I can’t tell. No ill effects as of yet. Since when has candy had expiration dates? I’ve now noticed canned goods with expiration dates. Obviously, the stuff isn’t really going to go “bad” on that date, so what’s the deal? The paper inside the tin says that they’ve been making Altoids for 200 years. If I ate 200-year-old Altoids, could I tell the difference? ---
**Author:** ![Engineer\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9fc29f/32.png) [@Engineer\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engineer_Dude)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/2 "2008-05-18T21:58:22Z")
It pretty much doesn’t matter when it comes to sugar. Last year, around passover (April 2007), I bought almost 100 2-liters of “Kosher” Coke. I’m not Jewish, but rather enjoy Kosher Coke 'cause it has sucrose rather than Corn Syrup. The 2-liters expired in June 2007, and I’m still to this day drinking the 10 or o that are remaining. That reminds me, I also need to drink the 2 remaining Goose Island Oatmeal Stouts that I have left, that expired on March 30. Mmm…bad yeast…ggaahh ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/3 "2008-05-18T22:09:19Z")
Hello Homer Simpson. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/4 "2008-05-18T22:51:12Z")
I just ate two packets of Lay’s Stackers or some such potato chips that expired May 6. No wonder someone left them for free at work! It was a few hours ago and I’m still feeling OK. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/5 "2008-05-18T22:53:32Z")
I think the biggest single event to influence my lifelong habit to check expiry dates was opening my fridge as a kid and taking a good old gulp of rancid milk. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/6 "2008-05-18T23:06:30Z")
I am going to look this up to see if I can confirm it, but I remember watching some kind of show a few months back about weird tailgating habits. I recall there being a segment about a guy who’s been to every home game for his football team for the last x number of years, and how he still has a bag of potato chips that he brought to his first football game. He’s been eating part of a chip from that bag at every game he attends. ---
**Author:** ![swampbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampbear/32/467_2.png) [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/7 "2008-05-19T00:03:37Z")
Well, I say this calls for a singalong! Everybody sing… [Found A Peanut](http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=found+a+peanut&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv&oi=property_suggestions&resnum=0&ct=property-revision&cd=1)! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/8 "2008-05-19T00:10:50Z")
[QUOTE=Engineer Dude] It pretty much doesn’t matter when it comes to sugar. Last year, around passover (April 2007), I bought almost 100 2-liters of “Kosher” Coke. I’m not Jewish, but rather enjoy Kosher Coke 'cause it has sucrose rather than Corn Syrup. [/QUOTE] Wha–? How is corn syrup not kosher? Daniel ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/9 "2008-05-19T00:26:26Z")
Two year old altoids…that’s nothing! In this week’s episode of _Lost_, Hugo ate some crackers that were 15 **YEARS** old. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![DaphneBlack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daphneblack/32/5389_2.png) [@DaphneBlack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaphneBlack)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/10 "2008-05-19T00:33:08Z")
[QUOTE=Left Hand of Dorkness] Wha–? How is corn syrup not kosher? Daniel [/QUOTE] Corn syrup isn’t kosher _for passover_ since it is derived from a grain. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/11 "2008-05-19T00:34:55Z")
I thought that anything w/ oil in it can go bad since oil goes rancid after a time. Altoids included. I’ve had some old mints before and they’d definitely turned. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/12 "2008-05-19T05:47:16Z")
[QUOTE=HelloNinja] I’ve had some old mints before and they’d definitely turned. [/QUOTE] Excuse me, some of us actually\* like\* undead mints ya know. ---
**Author:** ![Arabella\_Flynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8491ac/32.png) [@Arabella\_Flynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arabella_Flynn)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/13 "2008-05-19T12:22:55Z")
I always thought that expiration dates on hard candies had more to do with moisture than toxicity. Hard candies absorb moisture from the air, if they’re not packed air-tight. Altoids would probably disintegrate into a clumpy powder. On the other hand, the Altoids **Tamex** describes seem to have lost some of their potency, if they are merely “curiously strong” like the label suggests. The last time I ate one I was pretty sure it burned a hole clear through my tongue. ---
**Author:** ![nd\_n8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/439d5e/32.png) [@nd\_n8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nd_n8)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/14 "2008-05-19T15:55:20Z")
A good friend of mine back in high school had parents who were “Dumpster Divers”. They would check the dumpsters behind various supermarkets, department stores and warehouses for usable goods. There was always cases of expired chips, gum and pop; plus many other “goodies” at their house. I suppose they had enough experience to shy away from anything that might actually have turned but the stuff they did have was still good. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/15 "2008-05-19T16:02:47Z")
I worked at a cook for the Marine Corps as a summer job while in college. In the summer of 1983 we had a power failure on base and all of the refridgerated meat spoiled. Still, Marines gotta eat so we cooked what we had - bacon that had been canned in 1969. It was Vietnam-era surplus and was still “good” (meaning it wasn’t spoiled - I can make no claims as the taste since I refused to samle any meat that old). ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/16 "2008-05-20T00:53:23Z")
[QUOTE=nd\_n8] A good friend of mine back in high school had parents who were “Dumpster Divers”. They would check the dumpsters behind various supermarkets, department stores and warehouses for usable goods. There was always cases of expired chips, gum and pop; plus many other “goodies” at their house. I suppose they had enough experience to shy away from anything that might actually have turned but the stuff they did have was still good. [/QUOTE] An article I read in mental\_floss magazine called people like that “freegans” :). The tin is rather airtight–I’m sure that’s why the candy was still good. I’m surprised they didn’t take the packaging into account when determining shelf life. Or maybe they did, and I just have unusually undead Altoids. Perhaps now that I have eaten them, I too will live forever. ---
**Author:** ![Waffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/73ab20/32.png) [@Waffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waffle)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2022, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/17 "2022-07-02T05:14:39Z")
Hello! I am about 14 years late responding to this, but i’ve just done the same exact thing. Actually, i’m 14 years old as I type this, I was only a month old when this whole thread started. Anyways, I just ate 4 or 5 altoid mints that expired 4 years ago. I also put expired burts bee’s chapstick on… I was looking through an old backpack. So far my head hurts but i don’t care because I just made a whole new account for a website i haven’t heard of until now. (this one) Also there’s so many untaken usernames I am totally abusing this sorry not sorry. This feels weird, like i’ve learned things about the year 2008 in history class. To be fair it’s also social studies class but it was old seeming to us! ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2022, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/18 "2022-07-02T05:22:03Z")
Welcome to the SDMB, and I hope you survive the experience-both eating the ancient Altoids and joining our little group. 🙃 ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2022, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/19 "2022-07-02T05:42:42Z")
> [@Waffle](#): > > So far my head hurts but i don’t care I think you should be more worried about this. Just imagine how many other people must have eaten expired Altoids in the intervening 14 years, but NONE of them lived long enough to post their stories. And this sounds like a cover-up: > **[Death Reported at Altoids and Life Savers Plant](https://www.impomag.com/home/news/13213094/death-reported-at-altoids-and-life-savers-plant)** > > The Chattanooga Wrigley Manufacturing plant, the home of Altoids and Life Savers, has had a reputation for being dangerous; however it seems to have solidified it this past week when a 54-year old man died on the job, making it the second employee... > The details of the employee Wallace Scarbro’s death have not been released ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2022, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784/20 "2022-07-02T05:46:35Z")
> [@Waffle](#): > > Also there’s so many untaken usernames I am totally abusing this sorry not sorry. Hi. Welcome to the Dope. I’m curious about the above quoted statement. I’m sure you mean ‘abusing’ only as hyperbole but still I’m wondering what gain you hope to get out of the fact that there are “so many untaken usernames.” If anyone else has a guess I’d be interested in hearing it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-cruel-world-ive-eaten-an-expired-altoid/449784.md?page=2)