The real reason water bottles have expiration dates
Check it out before you drink up
Check it out before you drink up
Have you ever looked at a perfectly good bottle of and picked your own brain about why there's a tiny stamped on the side of it? Like, water can't actually expire, right?
Of course it doesn't. According to , there a few different reasons why water bottles come with expiration dates, all of which shouldn't worry you too much.
The first reason is actually pretty simple. Since water is a consumable product, it's required by law to have an printed on it just like milk, cheese, or eggs. That said, even though the water itself doesn't expire, the plastic bottle that it comes in does, and that can, in turn, cause chemicals from the bottle to leak into the water and affect its overall taste. So if you happen to find a water bottle well past its printed expiration date in your home, it's safe to drink but you should also be aware of the fact that it might not be super fresh anymore.
Manufacturers also benefit from printing expiration dates on water bottles because they normally use the same machines to bottle water as they do to bottle sodas and juices. Sodas and juices do expire, so stamping a date that doesn't necessarily mean anything on a water bottle can actually make things a little easier and more efficient for these companies, in that it wouldn't require water to be bottled using an entirely different machine or process.
Basically, these expiration dates are just a bunch of government regulations. so while you should check it to make sure it's gonna taste fresh, you can probably still relax and enjoy in most cases.