paracetamol

[ethandron]

can paracetamol go out of date? i've just been checking through my box of painkillers and have found a number of boxes of paracetamol with use by dates of 2 years ago. i wouldn't have thought it made any difference to their effectiveness, but does anyone (maybe we have a pharmacist or chemist here?) know different? thanks.

[sqad617]

Not a chemist or pharmacist, but would n't think it would make much difference with something like Paracetamol.

But if it was ME, then I would go and buy another up todate packet.

[ethandron]

have bought 4 new packets recently as i'm building up a stock of them to take when we go away for 8 weeks but it goes against the grain to throw any out if they still do the job. maybe i just ought to bite the bullet and bin the old ones, don't really know what i'm hanging on to them for having bought new ones. thanks for your input.

[Totterdown]

Anything out of date I would dump. As to paracetamol, supermarket's own brands are so cheap compared to the branded ones. It is not worth worrying about whether the old ones are effective when you can replace them very cheaply. And I mean very cheaply.