# The most expired product you will use **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 21, 2024, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567 "2024-09-21T22:27:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/61 "2024-09-23T16:57:39Z")
Does this thread apply to software? ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/62 "2024-09-23T17:13:22Z")
I have a bottle of mouthwash under my bathroom sink with an expiration date of 2011–it is 17% alcohol and it tastes mostly the same. And my rarely used bottle of baby powder “expired” in 2003. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/63 "2024-09-23T19:52:37Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Found an unopened jar of blue cheese stuff olives. I love those things. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/64 "2024-09-23T21:01:53Z")
The garlic stuffed olives are incredible. First time I tried them, I acquired an immediate addiction. I started with five (or so) and then kept finding my way past the olive dish. No too-garlicky taste, no blast of heat. Just sheer numminess. Oh, I paid for each olive, all night long… ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/65 "2024-09-23T21:05:05Z")
> [@Ellecram](#): > > I enjoy watching the people on YouTube eating ancient MREs from WW1 and even earlier lol. > > I think one of the guys actually ate Civil War era hardtack. I know a meteorite hunter who has a habit of occasionally swallowing a small crumb of his finds because reasons. Hard to beat 4.56 billion years. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/66 "2024-09-23T21:35:23Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > What is the worse that can happen? It can get a green scum. ---
**Author:** ![MoodIndigo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@MoodIndigo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoodIndigo1)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/67 "2024-09-24T01:28:36Z")
I had Balsamic vinegar in my salad yesterday, with a bit of olive oil. It tasted wonderful. The Colavita Balsamic Vinegar of Modena was best before July 2014. I was still with my husband when I bought it, and we split on July 14, 2012. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/68 "2024-09-24T02:52:47Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I know a meteorite hunter who has a habit of occasionally swallowing a small crumb of his finds because reasons. Hard to beat 4.56 billion years. > What is the worse that can happen? > It can get a green scum. [![](https://virginiatech.sportswar.com/uploads/2023/10/324704764564.jpg) ](https://virginiatech.sportswar.com/uploads/2023/10/324704764564.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/69 "2024-09-24T12:20:04Z")
I don’t understand how some of these situations happen. I can understand that someone bought a gallon of milk and didn’t use it all up by a week after the sell-by date. I can understand that a box of pasta or a can of beans keeps getting shoved to the back of the cabinet and you don’t rotate and you always use the newer ones that end up in front - and eventually you end up with a 10 year old can of beans. What I don’t understand is the really old stuff that has apparently been opened/used - it seems to me that if someone actually uses pancake syrup, they won’t still have a bottle that expired twenty years ago. Or peanut butter that expired three years ago. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/70 "2024-09-24T12:34:36Z")
When I moved in with my gf I had to rearrange some storage so I had places to put my stuff. In the basement there was a cupboard with her ex’s old liquor. Stuff he bought for a party decades ago, some open, some not. It is all long gone now, I drank it. Tasted just fine to me. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/71 "2024-09-24T12:38:04Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > What I don’t understand is the really old stuff that has apparently been opened/used - it seems to me that if someone actually uses pancake syrup, they won’t still have a bottle that expired twenty years ago. Or peanut butter that expired three years ago. What’s difficult to understand about someone who rarely uses something? Maybe they only make pancakes when their brother visits. Maybe they only use peanut butter when they make a certain type of cookie and they don’t bake very often. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/72 "2024-09-24T12:42:52Z")
I only use my tahini paste when I make baba ganoush. It’s probably expired, but the label is so old it has crumbled away, so I can’t really tell. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/73 "2024-09-24T13:25:13Z")
Agree. I buy maple syrup by the gallon and it will basically keep forever. I don’t eat it on anything like pancakes or waffles, but my wife uses it as part of a glaze we like. Still, we probably only use two or three cups a year for this purpose. TMI: I’m from New England and have lots of relative there. When we visit, we make sure to eat THEIR maple syrup. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/74 "2024-09-24T13:31:24Z")
I was rummaging through a closet and found a bottle of shampoo at the back of a shelf. I was running low so I took it out and put it in the shower. I started using it soon after. Then one day I happened to read the bottle. I found out that shampoo has an expiration date. And that this particular bottle of shampoo’s expiration date had been twelve years earlier. I kept using it. It seemed to work just fine. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/75 "2024-09-24T13:33:30Z")
I understand rarely using something - there’s a flavor of jelly I only use for baking two particular types of cookies. What I don’t understand is buying syrup in a quantity that would last for 20 plus years of my brother’s apparently infrequent visits and keeping it for all those years rather than buying a smaller container that will last a couple of years and spending a few bucks every so often to buy a new one. That jelly I mentioned - I buy the 12 oz jar, not the 30 oz two pack I buy of the flavor I use all the time. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/76 "2024-09-24T13:34:39Z")
I just now remember that I have an ancient bottle of maple syrup in my pantry. I was told that it never expires. Someone I dated in 2006 brought over a partially used bottle to make something and it has been there ever since. The label says 2004 Harvest 100% Pure. Trader Joe’s brand. I just cracked it open and it smells good. No mold and it’s viscous, not gummy. Should I toss it? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/77 "2024-09-24T13:37:20Z")
Your original post didn’t say anything about the size of the container. Obviously they should have originally bought a smaller one. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/78 "2024-09-24T13:39:07Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Should I toss it? I’d toss it onto some French toast. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/79 "2024-09-24T13:41:18Z")
I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. It’s a half full huge bottle. 24 fl oz. The back says “refrigerate after opening”. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567/80 "2024-09-24T13:51:20Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > The back says “refrigerate after opening”. The only reason to refrigerate maple syrup is to discourage mold. That said, my gf has a brother in Vermont, who brings us syrup whenever he visits. (and I always ask, “how’s Bernie” and he gets upset.) We do not refrigerate it. I’ve had mold appear, which I carefully remove and discard, then continue using the syrup. Once my gf saw me removing mold from Vermont syrup. She was upset that I wasn’t tossing it, but I found a cite that what I was doing was safe. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-expired-product-you-will-use/1007567.md?page=5)