test strip expiration?

I know everything has to have an expiration date, but I also know that many things, prescription meds included, do not suddenly crumble, lose their potency, etc. the date that is written on the package. What is a safe margin for test strip expiration date? a month or so?

thanks

 

I would go couple of months. However, I would "test" the strips either using the control solution. If that is not available, tet yourself if you are not diabetic, You should read about 100. Specifically:

Many factors affect a person's blood sugar level. A body's homeostatic mechanism, when operating normally, restores the blood sugar level to a narrow range of about 4.4 to 6.1 mmol/L (82 to 110 mg/dL).
Despite widely variable intervals between meals or the occasional consumption of meals with a substantial carbohydrate load, human blood glucose levels normally remain within the normal range. However, shortly after eating the blood glucose level may rise temporarily up to 7.8 mmol/L (140 mg/dL) or a bit more in non-diabetics. The American Diabetes Association recommends a post-meal glucose level less than 10 mmol/L (180 mg/dl) and a pre-meal plasma glucose of 5 to 7.2 mmol/L (90–130 mg/dL).[4]
The actual amount of glucose in the blood and body fluids is very small. The control mechanism in the human body works on very small quantities of glucose. In a healthy adult male of 75 kg (165 lb) with a blood volume of 5 litres (1.3 gal), a blood glucose level of 100 mg/dL or 5.5 mmol/L corresponds to about 5 g (0.2 oz or 0.002 gal, 1/500 of the total) of glucose in the blood and approximately 45 g (1½ ounces) in the total body water (which includes more than merely blood and will be usually about 60% of the total body weight in men). (A small sugar packets provided in many restaurants with coffee or tea is about 5 grams.)

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_sugar

 

Thanks, Larry. I am considering some that don;t expire until the summer so many will be fine. Maybe I would test one or two on myself (I am not diabetic) before they expire and then after under same conditions (before a meal, just after I get up). They are certainly less expensive this way.

You are a wealth of information! :mrgreen:

 

for one touch strips i think people have gone a few months past expiration with no problem.

fwiw, the only meter i know for sure won't let you use expired strips is the accu-chek aviva. the darn meter basically tells you to get lost once you reach about noon on the day they expire. LOL!!

 

OMG! really? boy, they sure have you tied up there, huh? I suppose it is to keep people from getting wrong readings and using them too far past the expiry date but they could have SOME little buffer built in and a flashing message on the meter: "you have one month left", then "two weeks" etc. to give you advance warning! nailbite_smile - one more thing to worry about!