Date Gimmicks
Written on May 23, 2026
Many food and drink industries picked up on pharmaceutical industry expiration date gimmicks and ran with them differently. Instead of expiration dates, they started emphasizing "best by" and "best before" dates.
I say "date gimmicks" because the goal is to get you to throw things out and buy replacements for them. The more you replace, the more money they make.
The Expiration Date Gimmick
The pharmaceutical industry puts expiration dates on all types of medicine. No specific type of medicine will cause adverse effects if you happen to take it a day or two after it expires. Medicine doesn't just suddenly go bad.
Pharmacies and drug stores in the United States aren't allowed to sell medicine near or past the expiration date. Certain other countries, and I can't remember which ones, have no problems with it.
I can't recommend using some types of medicine beyond their expiration dates because there could be side effects I know nothing about. It's an effective form of brainwashing, if nothing else.
I was shocked the first time I caught a relative throwing out Tylenol because it was a day or two past the expiration date. Non-narcotic drugs like acetaminophen (paracetamol outside the United States), ibuprofen and naproxen won't hurt you if you take them years after they expire.
Time only causes them to lose their potency. I saw an amusing question online: If poison passes its expiration date, does it become more poisonous?
The "Best By" and "Best Before" Date Gimmick
I didn't notice it until a couple of soft drink companies started recommending people drink their products before the "best by" date. I was reminded of it when I noticed it on a squirt bottle of mustard. Certain beverages and food items aren't any better on any specific date.
It's a gimmick some people mistake for an expiration date, which causes them to throw out perfectly good food. There are certain food items that don't expire in the normal sense of the word. I could probably spend a day listing them, breaking them down into categories.
I keep the peanut butter jar in the kitchen cabinet and the jelly in the refrigerator. Neither will last long enough to expire in any way. I keep the ketchup and the mustard in the refrigerator. They will go bad eventually, faster if left out at room temperature. Again, they won't last long enough to go bad.
Stocking Up
There are certain things that will last far longer than others. Canned food, like beans and chili, will last for years as long as corrosion doesn't compromise the internal vacuum. Canned food includes food sealed in vacuum-tight jars, like pickle relish.
I, unfortunately, don't have enough food stocks to survive more than a month should we have to suffer one kind of apocalypse or another. If I'm in the United States, I won't have to worry about it. I'm sure I could find rations stocked at any one of the dozens of military bases.
Image by The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons