Expiry date for fish oil capsules

November 27, 2023 5:16 PM

If a bottle of fish oil capsules has "EXP December 2023" printed on it, would you interpret that as "do not take after 1 December" or "Do not take after 31 December" ?
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries to Health & Fitness (14 answers total)

I would interpret that as probably the quality will start to decline at some point in 2024. I would not hesitate for a moment to take said capsules on Dec 31st, 2023 or indeed January 31st or March 31st, 2024.
posted by ssg at 5:20 PM on November 27, 2023 [34 favorites]

Also I would take it to mean ‘stores please take these off the shelves and stop selling them’, before 31 Dec 2023
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:40 PM on November 27, 2023 [9 favorites]

I would interpret it as "they'll be less effective at some point in 2024." I would cheerfully take them through 12/31. I would probably toss any leftovers in January but feel a little silly about it knowing I'm overly cautious about expiry dates.
posted by Stacey at 5:51 PM on November 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

There are a lot of things I wouldn't be too cautious about, but I learned the hard way once that some fish oil capsules I took were expired (read: rancid?) and I personally would not mess with them. (Similarly: ground flaxseed. When oils go bad they can go very bad.)
posted by trig at 6:34 PM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

(Google is saying rancid oil is supposedly okay to consume. So either it's because of something else, or Google is wrong. Either way, those are two things I've learned not to gamble on.)
posted by trig at 6:42 PM on November 27, 2023

I'm not sure about fish oil, but pharmaceutical expiry dates are usually the last day of the month marked.
posted by citygirl at 6:44 PM on November 27, 2023

I store fish oil capsules in the fridge, and if you do too it would substantially extend their useful, non-rancid lifespan.
posted by xueexueg at 7:03 PM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

I would take it as, "You haven't been having enough fish oil and you should definitely use up this container first."
posted by bluedaisy at 7:12 PM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Re: rancid oils - safe to consume doesn't mean pleasant to consume. Rancid oil smells and tastes off, and if it does disagree with your stomach, that wouldn't be pleasant. But expiry dates tend to be conservative so if it was me, I wouldn't be worried about them going off until after December.
posted by EvaDestruction at 7:26 PM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Do not take after 31st December.

I understand expiry dates to mean: do not consume after this date. So I interpret EXP December 2023 as meaning: do not consume after December 2023, i.e. do not consume on or after 1st January 2024.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 1:27 AM on November 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

If you're Canadian, EXP does apparently mean "do not consume after" and since there's only a month indicated that would mean "do not consume after December":

"An expiry date is not the same as a best-before date. These dates are required on certain foods that have specific nutritional compositions that could falter after the determined expiration date. In other words, after the expiration date has passed, the food may not have the nutrient content as described on the label.

Expiry dates are required for formulated liquid diets, foods sold by a pharmacist, meal replacements, nutritional supplements and infant formula.

If a food has passed its expiration date it should be discarded and not used."

The FDA is frustratingly opaque about it, with various documents I found suggesting that for food (including supplements, which are not considered drugs) the only time a "use by" date is required is on infant formula (which should be discarded and not used past that date), and states are individually allowed to mandate EXP/sell-by dates on eggs but that's more about not selling too-old eggs to wholesalers.
posted by Lyn Never at 5:04 AM on November 28, 2023

I would take the view that if only a month is specified, the level of precision around the expiry date is not so high. In some places, best befores and potentially expiry dates are required to give a day, I have for example a pack of decongestant tablets that I bought about two years ago and which expired last week. I'm still taking them, on the basis that it's not so likely that the precision of the work done to validate shelf life was greater than 1/24th. If I bought a pack of meat on the other hand, with a three day use-by, even a day later would be 1/3 over the life and I would not eat it.
posted by atrazine at 7:31 AM on November 28, 2023

It means Dec 31st. Source: I assign expiration dates professionally.
posted by Vatnesine at 4:15 PM on November 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

I take that to mean they need to get them off their shelves by December 2023.
posted by summerstorm at 8:08 PM on November 28, 2023