Since when does toothpaste have a best before date?

Littlemiss-lotsofdebt

I popped into town at lunchtime and Bodycare were selling off packs of 100g Colgate toothpaste including a toothbrush for 49p with a sign attached to the shelf saying 'out of date'.

Being the OS'er I now am, well mostly, I had a rummage through looking for a best before date as I didn't think toothpaste needed to have one. Anyhoo, found 2 packs with March 2007 on them but still stickered up at 49p each so popped them in my basket. The other packs on the shelf were best before Decemeber 2006, so I grabbed one of them as we need some to use now.

I was expecting to be charged full price at the till but the SA wizzed them through at 49p each, am really pleased getting 3 big tubes of toothpaste and 3 new toothbrushes for £1.47. :money:

Has anyone heard of this before on toothpaste? I still can't understand why they were reduced as they were still well in date but I'm not complaining!!

tr3mor

Most best-before dates can be seen as a "Date to chuck it in the bin and hand over more of your hard earned cash to us to replace it!"

I wouldn't worry!

holstar

difference between a 'use by' date, and a 'best before' date. Use by mean you should probably be chucking it once its past the date (generally on perishables), but best before is usually on non-perishables, and is more that although it might not taste as good after the BB date, it won't do you any harm.

I didn't think the active ingredients in toothpaste would go off though...

good bargain for you though

shell2001

I used to work at a factory that manufactured toothpaste (amongst many other products) and it is far more complicated that you would believe. When each batch is made a sample is sent to micro for testing before it is package, again once packaged it is tested. If you buy a striped toothpaste the procedure for this is unreal. Random samples have to be taken for the line at regular intervals and the stripe checked. If it falls outside guidelines it is rejected - some of the companies we used to provide toothpaste for would let us sell these in the staff shop for 10p a tube and the money donated to charity, some would ship to the forces over seas and some others had to go to disposal (completley bonkers just because the stripe may be out slightly).

This was true of a lot of other products, if the labels were slightly off the batch would be rejected. This did mean that paracetamols, germolene, toothpaste, antacids etc were pennies to buy in the staff shop!

hazzie123

I`ve had off toothpaste before and it taste absolutely disgusting,made me vomit! I never knew toothpaste had a BBdate on them until I looked for it after I had the worst taste in my mouth.It was about 8 months out of date.The toothpaste was in an old cosmetics bag what I used on holiday 1 year earlier.I thought it would be fine to use,never thought it could go off.

I suppose it`s like anything else,things just dont last forever.

larmy16

Perhaps you could freeze it until you need it?

bgp8000

I actually work as a toothpaste development scientist (yes there is such a thing!) for a manufacturer of toothpaste - I won't say which one - I'm not on the forum to do advertising , but to try to be helpful!

Best before dates on toothpaste are required by law, and are 3 years from date of manufacture. All safety testing is done assuming it won't sit around in the tube for more than 3 years before it's used.

Three things are likley to happen with toothpaste beyond its best before date:
1) Active levels (eg fluoride) will drop below the recommended level. Ie it won't give your teeth the same protection as newer toothpaste
2) the flavour 'goes off' - this will make the product not taste very nice, but won't be dangerous
3) It will dry out - become hard & chalky
This process doesn't suddenly happen at the 3 year point of course, but is a gradual process. Beyond 3 years, some toothpastes are betetr than others. Some will happily last 5 years, others struggle to even make the required 3 years.

Occasionally, bugs will start growing in it, but if the tube is undamaged & the seal is intact, this is very unlikely.

So, in summary, toothpaste is unlikely to be unsafe after it's best before date has past - just less pleasant to use, and not likely to provide all the benefits which it is mean to.

By the way, don't freeze it (that completely destroys the flavour & toothpaste structure!) but keeping it in the fridge will slow down the rate of fluoride drop-off quite a bit.