Covid test, has the expiry date extended on the home testing kits already received during Covid

ballyhargan

I would like to know if the home tests we received during Covid have had their expiry dates extended and if so where can you check. 

Misslayed

You may find that expiry dates are irrelevant, if like us, you discover that the essential liquid in the test has evaporated. 

elsien

Extended by who? They are made by different manufacturers and as companies are in the business of making money, ongoing effectiveness aside it’s in their interests for people to be buying new tests. 

Emmia

Expiry would be dictated by the efficacy of the test - and that can't just be arbitrarily extended. You could end up with false positives or false negatives.

Milk (or any fresh produce) it doesn't remain fresh just because the supermarket decided to extend its use by / best before date by 3 months. After a while it becomes undrinkable / inedible.

Slinky

Misslayed said:

You may find that expiry dates are irrelevant, if like us, you discover that the essential liquid in the test has evaporated. 

We discovered this was the situation with our OOD tests when checking this week. OH has Covid as confirmed by new tests, I found some old ones in the back of the cupboard and he was going to try using one to see if it said the same thing, but the liquid has all gone. The tests went OOD in January.

ballyhargan

Thank you for your responses but the following day I went to the pharmacy and they give me a free test and said ignore the expiry date as the manufacturer has confirmed these can be used past their expiry date, The green and white box Orient Gene's Rapid Covid-19 (antigen) self Test Exp 2024 01. I think it could depend on having the liquid still available within the test which was the case with this test I received.

molerat

The FDA in the US has extended specific kits by 3 to 6 months, some have not been extended.  Not seen anything from the NHS / UK gov.

https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests

silvercar

Slinky said:

Misslayed said:

You may find that expiry dates are irrelevant, if like us, you discover that the essential liquid in the test has evaporated. 

We discovered this was the situation with our OOD tests when checking this week. OH has Covid as confirmed by new tests, I found some old ones in the back of the cupboard and he was going to try using one to see if it said the same thing, but the liquid has all gone. The tests went OOD in January.

Id use water as a replacement. The actual liquid supplied maintains the neutral PH value of the cells collected on the swab stick. If you are going to follow the instructions and look at the result in the specified time, it won’t make much difference if you use water. Waiting hours to peer back at the results may be less likely to maintain the neutral PH, but otherwise it should be fine.