You wouldn’t use a bottle of cooking oil that’s been collecting dust in a cabinet for several years, and you wouldn’t take a supplement or medication stored under similar conditions. The same should be true of CBD oil. If you store it right, it’ll last a long time – but every edible product eventually reaches a point at which you should no longer consume it.
So, does CBD oil expire? Absolutely. CBD oil is a plant-based product that will interact with the environment and change over time. The good news, though, is that CBD oil usually lasts for about one to two years with no discernible loss in quality. As long as you store it properly, you should have no trouble making your CBD oil last until you’re ready to use it – even if it’s in long-term storage.
Reading this article, you’re going to learn how to store your CBD oil for the longest possible shelf life. You’re also going to learn how to tell when your CBD oil has gone bad. Most importantly, you’re going to discover some of the things that we’re doing here at Blessed CBD to make our CBD oil last as long as it possibly can. First, though, why does CBD oil go bad?
Why Does CBD Oil Expire?
The most plentiful ingredient in any bottle of CBD oil is a food-grade carrier oil that’s used to dilute the CBD oil to the correct strength and improve the product’s flavour and mouth feel. In the case of our full-spectrum and broad-spectrum CBD oils, we use hempseed oil as a carrier. Other common carriers for CBD oil include MCT oil and olive oil. Over time, interaction with light, air and moisture will cause oil to go rancid. Rancidity is the most common reason why CBD oil expires. In a moment, we’ll discuss how to identify CBD oil that has expired due to rancidity.
Cannabinoids also degrade over time, so the amount of active CBD in a bottle of CBD oil will decrease as the product ages. However, it’s likely that the carrier oil will go rancid long before the CBD content degrades to the point at which the product loses its effectiveness. For that reason, the degradation of cannabinoids in CBD oil is generally of little concern.
What Are We Doing to Make Blessed CBD Oil Last as Long as Possible?
Here at Blessed CBD, we take the shelf life of our products seriously. We want you to have a great experience with our CBD oil – even if you’re buying in bulk and plan to store the product for a while before using it. Here are just a few of the things that we do to give our CBD oil the best possible shelf life.
- We filter and refine our hemp distillate to remove contaminants and particulate matter such as fine plant material, waxes and dust. Removing fine particles helps to keep the rate of oxidation as low as possible.
- We package our CBD oil in amber glass bottles. Glass is chemically inert and doesn’t undergo molecular interaction with oil as plastic bottles can. In addition, we use amber glass to filter out ultraviolet radiation, which can cause CBD oil to oxidise more quickly.
- We exercise tight control over our supply chain. We conduct quality checks at every step in our production process to ensure that we’re only using top-quality hemp biomass that isn’t contaminated with microbial spores that could shorten shelf life. In addition, our efficient production process ensures that our CBD oil is shipped out to customers as quickly as possible after it’s bottled. A bottle of CBD oil will live out the vast majority of its shelf life in your hands – not in our warehouse.
How Can You Tell if CBD Oil Has Expired?
As we mentioned above, the most common reason why CBD oil goes bad is because the carrier oil has gone rancid – and as it turns out, rancid oil is extremely easy to identify. In fact, you’ve probably already tasted or smelled rancid oil if you’ve ever opened a bottle of cooking oil that was stored in a cabinet for too long. Rancid oil has an off-putting smell that people usually describe as “fishy,” and it often has a powerfully bitter aftertaste. It’s very difficult to make a mistake when it comes to identifying rancid oil because the scent and flavour are so distasteful. If a bottle of CBD oil doesn’t smell or taste right, you should discard it.
In some cases, it may also be possible to identify an expired bottle of CBD oil from its appearance. If you hold a new bottle of CBD oil up to a light, you should see that the oil looks clear. It’s normal for some CBD oils to be slightly dark because hemp distillate is dark in colour. However, a properly filtered CBD oil shouldn’t be cloudy. If you notice particulate matter floating in a bottle of CBD oil – or the bottle itself has taken on a cloudy appearance after being in storage for a long time – microbial contamination is a strong possibility. You should discard the bottle in that case.
How to Store CBD Oil for the Best Shelf Life
Reading this article, you’ve learned that the primary factors responsible for making CBD oil go bad are light, air and moisture. If you keep CBD oil away from those things, it’ll last a long time. Here’s how to do it.
- Don’t open a bottle of CBD oil until you’re ready to use it. Opening the bottle breaks the factory seal and exposes the oil to air and moisture. The rate of oxidation will be much lower as long as the seal is kept intact.
- Store CBD oil in a cabinet or other cool, dark place. Keeping your CBD oil in a closed cabinet protects it from light. Don’t put your CBD oil in a cabinet positioned above a stovetop or other source of heat.
- Consider putting your CBD oil in a refrigerator or freezer if you’ve made a bulk purchase and don’t expect to use the oil for a long time. Refrigeration slows down the molecular processes taking place within the CBD oil and will help to extend its shelf life.
