As food banks across Canada continue to face record demand, billions of dollars worth of perfectly edible food is being thrown away over confusion tied to “best before” labels, a new report says. The report from Toronto-based food rescue organization Second Harvest found that nearly 23 per cent of avoidable food waste in Canada, worth over $12 billion, can be linked to outdated practices around date coding. “We are way behind on food waste strategy…. People are throwing away perfectly good food because they believe food is unsafe after a certain day,” said Lori Nikkel, CEO of Second Harvest.

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I inherited my dad's first aid kit last year - he used to do cycling coaching and race management so had a large kit in his truck at all times in case anyone came off their bike during a race and it had accumulated a lot of items and dust over the years.

While I was sorting through it recently I kept thinking about your posts and was curious what you might have to say about first aid kits : how often they should be updated, what would you still trust to use, what you wouldn't touch at all past it's expiry date and what could still be used in an emergency even if it's not ideal (such as for fic purposes, if all you had was an old dusty first aid kit found in the back of a car or abandoned cabin in the woods ect).

For reference, these were some of what I found with their expiry dates and condition:

Latex(?) Gloves (loose). Tried on, still good stretch and no obvious thin spots. Just covered in dust

Saline vials, expiry dates 2021. 2022. 2023

Alcohol swabs. Expiry dates 2021. 2025

Hand sanitizer 2010 (cant tell if batch date or exp date)

Aqua tab water purifier tablets exp date 2012

Imodium (in same container as Aqua tabs. No exp date)

Savlon antiseptic cream tubes, expiry dates 2014, 2024

Eye lubricant vials exp 2007

Coleman emergency blanket x2 (date 20100723 must be batch date??)

Livingstone splinter probe individual foil. 10/94 (cant tell if batch date or exp date)

Adhesive bandage patches . Assorted sizes. (individually packaged). Exp dates 2015. 2019. 2024. 2004. 2012

Wound gauze, individually packaged. Exp dates 1996, 2009. 2018. 2014

Non adherrant wound dressing (clear film like) exipry dates 2006. 2016

Soft cloth dressing (roll) exp 2018

Medical tape. Lot 2017.

Bandaids (loose from box. Still sealed. Some very dry)

Nateopharm Arnica tablets. Expiry date either 2002 or 2012 (very faded label)

Ear plugs (opened)

And a bonus pic of finger tip gloves that were DEFINITELY unusable because they were completely dry and cracking apart.

Wow, this is super cool! I once found a 50+ year old first aid kit on an AmeriCorps campus and it was seriously so much fun going through it!

As far as expiration dates, here's what I've got for you:

For packaged things like gauze pads and bandages, the expiration is for the sterility of the product. It's how long it's going to be before the packaging itself gets not so good at keeping out germs.

And keep in mind that the expiration date is the legal guarantee. Assuming the package is unopened, undamaged, and has always been dry, it's going to last a heck of a lot longer than the expiration date. Personally, I would use these as long as I had carefully visually inspected the package (especially along seams) and seen it to still be intact. There is little you are doing from a first aid perspective that requires absolute sterility. The water you are using to wash a wound out is not sterile.

For pills, the expiration date guarantees a level of potency and the integrity of the pill. The US Strategic National Stockpile does extensive research on the stability of medications and vaccines and has largely found that most pills in their original unopened packaging are good for use potentially decades beyond their expiration. Once you get beyond about 10 years past the expiration date, you start to run into potency problems (what was once a 20mg tablet now might only contain 15mg of a drug), but generally they do not break down into something harmful (there was one instance of a tetracycline antibiotic formulation that is no longer on the market causing kidney failure when taken long past expiration, but on the whole, an exceedingly rare phenomenon).

The other problem you may run into with pills is that their binding agents fail and they disintegrate. Doesn't mean the resulting powder can't be used (by your characters) if you (they) have a single intact tablet and a very accurate scale. But IRL that opens up a lot of room for error and I don't recommend it.

For any other medications (especially medication in vials, ointments, and liquids), these lose potency a lot faster than pills, and once opened, they have a hard use-by date (usually a month from the time they are opened, but different for different meds) because they start growing bacteria. Epinephrine auto-injectors are said to be okay to use past their expiration as long as the liquid inside is not cloudy (meaning bacteria). They have probably lost some potency, but it's also an emergency.

Soft and soul-wrenching, Expiration Dates takes a magical realism look at love and relationships. It places a premium on the concept of fate vs. free will, of learning to live with impending uncertainty, and of deciding to invest your whole heart regardless of time constraints.

Ever since she was a little girl, Daphne Bell has received notes from the universe that stated the name of the next man she would date as well as how long the relationship would last. Whether it was days, months, or on a couple occasions, years, the notes were always accurate. So she grew to follow them to the letter even when her feelings protested, yearning for the day when she'd receive one without an end date, but secretly believing it'd never happen. However, all that changes after she receives a card with one name and nothing else: Jake.

Could this mean he is her soulmate? Is that why there was only a name and no expiration date? Or have these notes over the years been acting more as self-fulfilling prophecy because Daphne's been too afraid to face, let alone share, a devastating secret about herself?

Told with warmth and resonant emotion, this book asks readers to imagine how one might approach love differently if one knew precisely how long it would last. The author does a good job of illustrating the struggle that exists between wanting to be as present as possible in a relationship while also fearing/dreading the loss of someone whether it's imminent or not. Daphne is a character who toils intensely over life decisions, especially when it comes to love, so it is both affecting and satisfying for readers to be a part of her journey of self-discovery. Jake and Hugo are both great counterparts, too. They each bring out different sides of her, challenge her in diametric ways.

All around, this was poignant read with a unique concept and unexpected twists. Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for my review!

3.5/5 stars