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Strips - Out of Date

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tubamanandy

Well-Known Member
Messages
108
Just noticed that all of the strips I have been using are about 6m out of date !

For those of you that use strips regularly, does it really make much difference to the results ? (assuming you have used out of date strips)
 
do you pay for them. im getting through 50 in 10 days. if the chemists are rotating there stock you should have around a year to use them. i would replace if you can. but if you use them expect them to lose accuracy which is the whole point of testing.
 
Ive used strips when theyve been a month or so out of date with no probs
 
never had strips out of date , they do not give me that many but would use if had some
 
tubamanandy said:
Just noticed that all of the strips I have been using are about 6m out of date !
Click to expand...
Just be prepared for inaccurate + or - readings with them.

All of my strips (3 x 100 boxes) that I have here at home expire Feb 2019, looks like your pharmacist is using old stock if you got the strips recently.
 
There are so many variables involved in testing. Hands not washed/dried enough. Monitors with built-in error percentage. So oldish strips are just one more thing to worry about. If I get a decent reading then everything is ok. If I get a high one, then I'm happy to blame weather, lack of exercise, machine, soapy finger, strips or something else.
That keeps me sane. Seriously though, I plot readings on a chart and only look at trend line.
 
nomoredonuts said:
There are so many variables involved in testing. Hands not washed/dried enough. Monitors with built-in error percentage. So oldish strips are just one more thing to worry about. If I get a decent reading then everything is ok. If I get a high one, then I'm happy to blame weather, lack of exercise, machine, soapy finger, strips or something else.
That keeps me sane. Seriously though, I plot readings on a chart and only look at trend line.
Click to expand...
I would offer that a larger percentage of diabetics would be unaffected by using out of date strips because of the way we tend to use our meters. However if you are a user of insulin or a public service driver needing to meet DVLA requirements, then it could lead to an unsafe condition or the taking of a wrong decision.

As said above, single spot readings should not be used to make important decisions. I use an app that averages my readings so I can (and have) detected out of spec strips or fakes. I even got some rebadged faulty strips from my pharmacy, but the forgery was quite obvious and the barcode turned out to be nonsense made up by the forger, Buying off ebay is considered dodgy since this can be people getting strips free on scrip then selling them on for profit.

The bgl meters use a biochemical detector system that is susceptible to ageing , oxidization, contamination and moisture/temperature so will deteriorate over time. If you depend on your readings then get replacements asap, and store them in a cool dry place as directed in the literature in the pack.
 
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