Don’t throw expired rapid tests out just yet!

Many at-home COVID-19 tests have seen their expiration date extended. Why is that and are they still safe to use?

The expiration date signifies when a product’s safety or efficacy may be compromised due to potential loss of stability (1). Unlike medications, where using them beyond expiration can be harmful, the primary concern with at-home COVID-19 tests is efficacy rather than safety. Over time, the molecules needed for accurate results may degrade and result in a false negative (i.e. when a test appears negative but you actually are positive) (1,2,3).

At-home COVID-19 test expiration dates were determined through an accelerated stability test. In this test, the manufacturer exposes its product to extreme conditions in order to estimate how long the product should retain its stability in normal conditions. However, since this isn’t real-time testing, the product might remain effective beyond the initial expiration date (2,4,5). As time passes, more real-time stability data are collected and in some cases, the expiration date can be extended (4,6,7).

That is why the expiration date of many at-home COVID-19 test brands have been extended from 6 to 24 months after their manufacturing dates (check these references for lists of at-home COVID-19 tests that had their expiration date extended – (6, 8-16)).

Keep in mind, expired at-home COVID-19 tests are safe to use but may yield false negatives (2). If you’ve been exposed but show no symptoms, wait 2-5 days before testing – enough antigen needs to develop to be detected by the test (3,12,17,18,19). If you have symptoms, test immediately. In case of a negative result, re-test every 48 hours until you achieve 2 consecutive negatives (if symptomatic) or 3 consecutive negatives (if asymptomatic) (18,20).

If your rapid test has passed the extended expiration date, you can recycle the box and the instruction sheet and throw the rapid tests in the trash (8).

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Many at-home COVID-19 tests have seen their expiration date extended. Why is that and are they still safe to use?#ScienceUpFirst

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— ScienceUpFirst | LaScienced'Abord (@ScienceUpFirst) December 15, 2023

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