Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with expiry

That's One Old Twinkie

MarchHare — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 01:43:07 -0800

I bought a couple of Twinkies today and just noticed that their expiry date is August 2007. My SO has misgivings about eating something so, well, old. I contend that Twinkies are basically Cold War-era bunker spec foodstuffs. So: Perfectly Fine, or Deadly Poison?

Is my groupon voucher really expired?

jacalata — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:46:06 -0800

Washington state law says gift certificates you buy can't have an expiry date. What does that really mean for the groupon, etc. vouchers I purchased that have expired? The merchant fulfilling a voucher I bought (actually from Tippr, but same kind of setup) told me I can't transfer my voucher to anyone else, which annoyed me and doesn't seem to be in the terms of sale. So I went to look up relevant law, and found the Revised Code of Washington on gift certificates. It doesn't say anything about transferability but it does say

(5)(a) "Gift certificate" means an instrument evidencing a promise by the seller or issuer of the record that consumer goods or services will be provided to the bearer of the record to the value or credit shown in the record and includes gift cards.

(1) Except as provided in RCW 19.240.030 through 19.240.070, it is unlawful for any person or entity to issue, or to enforce against a bearer, a gift certificate that contains:

(a) An expiration date;

where the exceptions appear to be only if it is given away for free, or is issued by a 'cultural organisation'.

What am I missing? Could I just tell merchants that their vouchers aren't allowed to expire and I should always be able to redeem it for the full promotion? And would that be a jerk move, or just standing up for my rights under the law?

Can I drink it?

maryr — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:51:08 -0800

Does powdered milk actually expire? I have some powdered milk drinks (instant chai, essentially, just add hot water) from an Indian grocery that are past their expiration date. Can I still use them? I've opened one (expiry 03/11) and I can't decide if it smells sour or I'm imagining things.

The chai is in individually sealed silver packets, so I'm not particularly worried about contamination.

FWIW, I have had powdered milk tea from Taiwan that had "expired" but I made them and suffered no ill effects. I trust that the manufacturing processes in both India and Taiwan are more or less up to FDA standards, but correct me if I'm wrong.

Is my domain gone forever?

tobyslater — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 01:46:31 -0800

Can anyone talk me through the rules for domain expiry and backordering? My searches on AskMefi, Wikipedia and ICANN's site give lots of different answers and may be out of date. I had a domain registered with Network Solutions for over ten years and (due to email problems) didn't know it had expired until around 30 days after expiry. Then I paid the domain renewal fee, which Network Solutions accepted, but later found that they sold the domain on backorder to someone else. It seems that the domain never went into a redemption period and Network Solutions have given me the runaround since then, passing me on to customer service people who are determined just to repeat the same thing which is that 30 days passed and so I have no right to retrieve the domain (even though they took my payment for it!)

But the domain never became available to the general public. Is it true that redemption periods don't take place if there is a backorder from someone else? Annoyingly the domain was in my name and the person who has bought the domain is a German person with a completely different name.

Travel from Canada to the US with a passport expiring in < 6 months

Pruitt-Igoe — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 16:37:16 -0800

Will I be able to enter the US with a Canadian passport that expires in 4 1/2 months? Much of the information online about passport requirements is outdated, but I did manage to find some documents on the US State Department website:

From 9 FAM 41 NONIMMIGRANT VISAS:
The document "9 FAM 41.104 PASSPORT REQUIREMENTS" says that the passport must be more than 6 months away from expiry (requirement INA 212(a)(7)(B)(i)(I)). However, the document "9 FAM 41.104 NOTES" mentions that there are countries (listed in "9 FAM 41.104 EXHIBIT I") for which there is an agreement to extend the validity of the passport by 6 months for the purposes of section INA 212(a)(7)(B)(i)(I). Canada is one of these countries.

According to the law, as I understand it, I should be OK. What I'm worried about is, will the customs agent give me a hard time or not let me in at all? Basically, has anyone tried this recently and been admitted to the US?

Will S/MIME keep my email private even from me?

flabdablet — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:59:13 -0800

What happens to an S/MIME-encrypted email message when the certificate used to encrypt it expires? If, for example, I've got a bunch of S/MIME encrypted emails stored in a Gmail account that I use via Thunderbird and IMAP, and I have a certificate installed in Thunderbird which expires - do all those messages suddenly become unreadable?

Also: if I install an updated certificate, what happens when somebody I haven't heard from for a while sends me a mail encrypted using the public key from my old (but still not yet expired) certificate?

Passport troubles

Tiresias — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:03:51 -0800

Possible passport problem while catching a connecting flight in Shanghai I am a Canadian citizen currently residing in Japan. Time to go home! My passport is set to expire August 6th, so I booked a flight back to Canada on August 4th. Unfortunately, that flight connects through Shanghai --- and I just realized last night that it may be a problem to connect through China using a passport set to expire in two days.

The Canadian embassy has not been helpful, except to tell me that there is no way they can issue a temporary extension.

So, I have two questions:

1) Can I connect through Shanghai on a passport set to expire in two days? I will be in the airport for less than 24 hours.

2) I am a dual citizen and currently hold an Italian passport. Could I possibly leave Japan on my Canadian passport (I need to, for visa reasons) and then enter China on my Italian passport, which is valid for another few years?

Any information you have will be helpful, because I am utterly, utterly freaking out right now.

Expiry dates and what they are intended to mean...

scarabic — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:08:44 -0800

Are "expiration" and "sell by" dates intended to communicate how long the product will last - even once opened? Or are they only meaningful in terms of shelf life before opened? A jar of peanut butter might have an expiration date 2 years off. But that's only if it remains unopened, right? It's not going to last 2 years once exposed to oxygen, etc. Right? I read these two pages and am aware that these dates are guidance only, not law, and that they are imprecise, and sometimes refer only to flavor / quality not safety. I'm just trying to understand the opened/unopened thing.

Does fish oil last like any other oil?

gttommy — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:08:14 -0800

Does fish oil last like any other oil? I've got a jar of deep sea salmon fish oil complex soft gels which I've neglected in my dorm for 2 weeks under the summer heat (room 30-38 degrees celsius). I've only recently recovered from self-applied food poisoning and the fish oil is a suspect.

So my question is, does fish oil last under these temperatures over long periods of time? Does it last just like any other oil, like sesame oil? If not, how can I tell whether it has become inedible?

Additional info: looks and smells the same, produced in September last year, label suggests it should last 3 years.

Why does laser toner have an expiry date?

DonM — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:58:42 -0800

Why does laser toner have an expiry date? My laser toner cartridge finally ran "dry" after 8 years of use (same cartridge) and the replacement refill that I purchased has an expiry date which is listed as a little over year from now. I also believe that most new cartridges also have an expiry date but since mine lasted for so long, I don't understand the purpose of having an expiry date.

What requirements are there for passport validity when entering the UK and France?

Big Fat Tycoon — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 10:53:54 -0800

What requirements are there for passport validity when entering the UK and France? I have a Canadian passport and am a Canadian citizen intending to travel to England and France, returning mid-June. I have a direct flight in and out of England, and am taking the Eurostar to France from England. My passport expires mid-November, giving me about 5 months before expiry when I return from this trip. I know that there are some countries that require 6 months validity, but I have not been able to determine definitively if this applies in the UK or France. I'd call the consulate, but at 2.80 USD a minute to use their outsourced helpdesk, I'm hoping someone who's encountered this before might be able to help me first.

Modifying cookies from various websites

Big Fat Tycoon — Mon, 16 May 2005 08:35:44 -0800

Is there a utility or method to modify the expiry date of a cookie in Firefox from any website? I have several "saved searches" on a website that are set to expire in 30 days, but I'd like to be able to use them indefinitely when I'm on the site. I don't think there's any options in Firefox itself to extend the expiry.