Experience From - Marcia , Tom Andrews , Karl King , Rich Schick ,
"How serious are the expiration dates on GU, Cliff Shot, Powergel...? What about Powerbars...? Does keeping it refrigerated extend its shelf life?"
I can give you a bit of help here. I'm a rep for Phil's Bar. It's a bar that has the same consistency as the power bar, but believe me.....it tastes a whole heck of a lot better. The manufacturer says they last 9 months, but you can extend the life by refrigerating them. How long? They didn't say. So those dealers who have access to a refrigerator, do store them there.
I agree with the GU response that it just becomes thicker.
Also, I had some old Power Harvest Bars stored in a cannister. These things were rock hard. Very difficult to eat after the expiration date. So I'm thinking, maybe those Harvest Bars make a transformation after expiration....they turn into Power Bars after expiration date. (Humor implied)
I have had Powerbars that were 3 years past their expiration date - they were in a storage locker in Minnesota where they were exposed annually to heat over 100 degrees F; and cold of minus 40 F. When eaten they seemed the same as if you took them off the shelf in a store today. (Except they were the old Malt-Nut flavor that was the original flavor, if I remember right.) They probably last forever!
Mark wrote:
"What's the consensus on length of time to keep fluids, such as Ultra Amino, Cytomax, etc....around. Mix up a couple day's supply ok?"
Drinks with amino acids in them ( Amino, Cytomax, CLIP ) should be kept cold and used within 24 hours.
Drinks without aminos ( Ultra, Gatorade, etc ) will keep a few day if refrigerated.
A key factor is the cleanliness of the container in which the drinks are stored. If the container is not really clean, you can expect the storage time to be cut in half.
As for lifetime on semi-solid products like gels and bars, using them after the expiration is not likely to do much harm from a biological standpoint, but the consistency and flavor are likely to be degraded. I did however open an old Cliff bar and found that it was moldy throughout. I didn't even bother to taste it, and threw it in the trash.
Subject: Ibuprofin Expiration
With most drugs the only problem with the expiration is a loss of potency, there are a couple that break down into harmful byproducts after a long time on the shelf, others can support bacteria or fungi after a while. I'm not completely sure about Motrin, but I think the only problem is one of potency - its your call