What is the Shelf Life of CBD Products?
A product’s shelf life is determined by lifespan the ingredients that go into it. Generally, good form is to begin by setting a product’s expiration date equal to the date of the ingredient that expires first as a safe baseline. From there, labs that perform stability testing can assess whether the ingredients blended together interact in a way that causes a longer or shorter shelf life, and hone in on the most accurate date possible.
The easiest way for you and your customers to preserve shelf life as long as possible is to store all products at room temp, away from sunlight and extreme temperatures. Contrary to years of tradition, the bathroom medicine cabinet isn’t the best place for this due to the humidity that accumulates in most bathrooms.
Common CBD products are good for between 1 and 2 years when properly stored. This depends on when it is made and the materials that go into it. That range is much longer than most food products, which are usually set to expire in days, or weeks instead of years.
Generally, the FDA considers the ideal expiration date to be 2 years or less. This isn’t a hard rule, but good form. Because they expect firms to have supporting data for their expiration dates, many manufacturers elect to have a “Manufactured on” date instead of an expiration date.