Hi i hope someone can help me.
i have just found a small pot of quite high quality (high proten, low ash) tropical flake food that i have never used. It is still sealed. the expiry date is Aug 06 so it is out of date, but only just.
Since the seal has never been broken the food has never been in contact with water or air, so do u think i can use it for a while??? it would be a shame to have to throw it all away.
Thanks

Personally I never risk using anything that is out of date as the vitamins etc will not be in the food as stated anymore plus I wouldn't want to give my fish upset stomachs.I know how people can get sick with out of date stuff.

I think you can still use it! its like bread if you freeze it, the date may expire, but you can still unfreeze it and its OK. maybe just try it on your fish for now?

Different opinions. I personally would not. Fish food is particularly prone to decay because of the shrimp/fish based content and I wouldnt risk it.

I understand that, but surely airtight sealed food of any variety cannot decay, as it is not exposed to any elements such as oxygen, water etc????

Hmm, differing opinions make this a hard decision. On the one hand, i dont wank to risk it being bad for the fish.
on the other hand i do not logically think that the food can be in bad condition, as it is only expired by a few months and it is still sealed. if it had been opened i would have thrown it away without question.

I'm no expert but I would think the preservative used would preserve the food only for the time frame it says. Otherwise we could eat food without being concerned about expiry dates as long as they were well sealed. Mmmm. Even the longlife tin packages of food used for mountain climbers/army supplies etc eventually rot don't they? Your call

but that is kinda true, i mean, an open packet of pitta bread will go off by the expiration date or a few days after, as it goes hard and dried out and mouldy. but a packet that goes off on the same day but is still sealed will still be perfectly fine after that date for a while as it hasn't been opened and exposed to the elements required for it to decay.

However, i do think the fish food has been past it's date for too long for that to apply, so i will throw it away.

I wouldn't risk it. I once fed expired shrimp to my guppies - two got ill, the other died.

Depending on the content, the nutritional value may be gone.