Can you remember the last time you checked the expiration dates on the food you have in your pantry or in the back of your refrigerator? If you can’t remember, this might be a good time to go and check.
We often get questions on using expired product and if it’s still safe. Our advice is not to use a Nutricia formula or low protein food product past its date of expiration. Let me explain why as a lot of factors go into determining an expiration date for Nutricia products.
The packaging material is one of several factors when determining the expiration date of a product. It is important to use materials for storing and packaging the product that are strong enough to keep the product inside safe until the expiration date. The packaging helps keep the ingredients in the product stable. For example, some fats go bad faster than others. We select our packaging carefully to ensure the product you consume stays fresh until the expiration date.
Another factor in setting expiration dates is to ensure the nutrients in the product are true to the levels marked on their label. Nutrients, especially vitamins, tend to naturally break down over time; some faster than others. It is extremely important that the right amount of each nutrient is in the product since these formulas can make up a large portion of your daily nutritional needs. We conduct extensive testing to ensure that the nutrients are preserved until the date of expiration.
Nutricia’s goal is to bring you the best nutritional products possible. The intent of an expiration date is to keep our consumers safe and ensure they receive the nutrition they need. Again, we cannot recommend using any of our products past their date of expiration. We suggest discussing this further with your healthcare professional if you have expired product at home and have further questions.
Checking food labels for expiration dates doesn’t take too long and will help you from mistakenly grabbing an expired product to use for dinner next week.
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