Find out if your CBD oil is expired

Over the past several years, hemp products have become a ubiquitous part of our lives. You can’t browse Instagram, let alone the shelves at your local health food store or pharmacy, without seeing the benefits of CBD extolled. And it’s true, CBD products are powerful tools for any number of ailments.

CBD salves and topicals can soothe fatigued muscles and offer relief to achy joints. CBD gummies can ease our anxiety and help us get to sleep. CBD coffee and black teas deliver much-needed caffeine without all the jittery, wired side effects. The most potent and versatile of all CBD products, however, is CBD Oil.

If you’ve explored hemp products, you likely have a bottle of CBD oil in your house right now. Those little glass bottles filled with CBD tinctures of varying strengths and strains have become a necessary item in any household medicine cabinet.

Like anything you keep in your medicine cabinet, it’s good to have a basic understanding of CBD oils’ shelf life. Does it go bad? What’s the proper way to store it to keep it from going bad? Does CBD oil expire? What happens if I use expired CBD oil? These are all valid questions. So let’s break them down one by one. Starting with…

Does CBD oil go bad?

CBD oil typically has a shelf life of around two years from the manufacture date, but that doesn’t mean it will spoil. It’s more than probable that if appropriately stored, most CBD oils won’t spoil, go rotten, or rancid even well past their expiration date. What may happen, however, is that the CBD can begin to lose its potency. As the cannabidiol compounds in your oil begin to oxidize and break down, they may become less effective.

What’s the proper way to store CBD oil?

Take care of it! Because CBD extracts are combined with a carrier oil to make CBD oil, it’s best to treat your CBD oil in much the same way you’d treat high-end olive or coconut oil.

This means storing your CBD oil in a cool, dry place away from heat or bright light. It also means keeping the oil in the bottle it came in. Because heat and bright light can oxidize oils, you’ll notice that most CBD oils come in dark-colored Miron glass, which helps block almost the entire spectrum of visible light.

You might be tempted to refrigerate your CBD oil to extend its shelf life, but don’t. Room temperature or somewhere between 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal for storing CBD oil.

Does CBD oil expire?

Yes. Technically, yes, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires every bottle of CBD to be marked with an expiration date. If your bottle of CBD does not have an expiration date, we recommend throwing it away immediately. All reputable brands should have their expiration dates marked on each bottle, so if you have oil without an expiration date, that’s not a reputable brand.

What happens if I use expired CBD oil?

While CBD oil should have an expiration date, as we mentioned earlier, most high-quality CBD oil wouldn’t go bad. It will merely lose efficacy. So if you accidentally use expired CBD oil, you’ll likely be just fine. You just won’t experience the full benefits of CBD.

That being said, whether or not it’s passed its expiration date, you should never ingest CBD oil that smells rancid, or that has changed colors. If your CBD oil looks foggy or has a foul smell, it’s best to throw it away. These could be signs that the oil was stored improperly and has begun to degrade or decompose.