Can I eat/consume it? Fish oil caps circa 2015

April 2, 2020 11:41 AM

1000mg Kirkland fish oil caps that expired 2015 - use or toss?

The caps are amber in color, and still slightly squishy i.e. not hard/dried out.

Whether or not they are potent anymore is up for discussion.

posted by kilohertz to Food & Drink (9 answers total)

This is a case where I would also not eat this, and I am pretty cavalier about my own consumption.

Rancid oil is not good for you and will be potent in...a different way.
posted by bilabial at 12:16 PM on April 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

Toss. By the way, buying fish oil instead of caps is tremendously cheaper but may not for you palate.
posted by yoyo_nyc at 12:26 PM on April 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

if you're not squeamish, bite one open - rancidity is pretty easy to detect via gross tastes and smells - as long as you're kinda familiar with the regular gross taste and smell of fish oils :P

can't speak to the efficacy, I don't know if that would be effected by being old. I kind of think oil is okay until it is rancid, but I think I don't have a basis for that statement.
posted by euphoria066 at 1:08 PM on April 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

Toss, rancid oil is bad for you.
posted by hungrytiger at 1:15 PM on April 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

You will absolutely know by smell if they’ve gone rancid. I’d cut one rather than bite, but if it doesn’t smell rancid, I’d take them and assume they are as effective as they ever were.
posted by SaltySalticid at 2:04 PM on April 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

Toss it with all the prejudice I hereby pass on to you, after having accidentally ingested expired fish oil caps.
posted by trig at 2:58 PM on April 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

I eat all kinds of things that are past their dates or have been left out without refrigeration and I would toss this immediately without breaking open any capsules. With fish oil, it's hard to tell if it's rancid because the fish oil itself has a very strong smell. Eating rancid oil is not good for you; taking these would be the very opposite of doing something good for your health. Toss!
posted by quince at 3:47 PM on April 2, 2020

I literally threw away a quarter bottle of expired fish oil capsules this morning, for all the reasons mentioned above. (The bottle itself is in the recycling). Time to buy a new batch if wanted.
posted by scrubjay at 4:05 PM on April 2, 2020

Open one and taste it. If at all rancid, toss.

Do this with every bottle of fish oil capsules, even ones that have not expired, any new bottle you buy, or any bottle you haven't tested for six months or so. If it's not rancid tasting or smelling you are good.

Do not use a taste test with cooking oil. It has been heat treated so that if it goes rancid you won't know. Fish oil has not been treated like that. Consuming elderly vegetable oil is bad for you, even if you can't tell that the oil is changing into something not good for you.
posted by Jane the Brown at 5:06 PM on April 2, 2020