The Reason Why Bottled Water Have Expiration Dates

There is a very high chance that you have stopped to wonder the reason why bottled water you buy has expiration dates despite the fact that you know that water actually never expires.

And if you are one of those people that don’t know,Yes, Bottled Water DOES Expire—and there are a number of reasons why you should take those expiration dates seriously.

The Simple truth is that ignoring the sell-by date could have pretty serious consequences. While it is common knowledge that you shouldn’t drink out of the water bottle that you left in a hot car, but how recently have you checked the expiration date of the bottled water you have stocked?



As it turns out, it isn’t the water quality you should be worried about; it’s the plastic that the water comes packaged in. Most plastic containers are made up of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for retail bottles and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) for water cooler jugs.

After a certain point in its life, the plastic can begin leaching into the liquid, which affects its taste and could create a serious health hazard. The porous plastic can also cause the water to accumulate odours and other nasty accompaniments from outside.

However, it is still unlikely that an “expired” but unopened bottle of water will do you much harm. The reason for this is because the expiration dates are fairly arbitrary.

The only reason they were put there in the first place was because the laws of most countries require all food products to display an expiration date, according to Mental Floss.

Since it wasn’t very cost effective to label and ship batches of expiration-dated water to one location alone, bottled water producers just started giving every bottle a two-year sell-by date, Irrespective of the location the water is being shipped to.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has never established any specific limitations on the shelf life of bottled water. Most producers have just kept it there for efficiency’s sake.

As such, when all is said and done, you can sip that two-year-old bottle of water without having to worry too much. Just make sure you don’t drink water that’s been sitting overnight or longer.