If your journey to a healthy and balanced life has included adding nutritional greens powder to your daily diet, then well done! You made a great choice. Greens powders are packed full of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients your body needs to perform at its best.
But what’s the deal with their expiry? We know that greens powders are created by freeze-drying various fruits, vegetables, herbs, and other good ingredients and grinding them into a powder. We also know those products have quite a short shelf life before they’re freeze-dried. So how does that translate into greens products?
Read on to find out.
What’s the Shelf Life of Powdered Greens?
To understand the shelf life of powdered greens, we first need to consider how they’re made. The process that takes all the ingredients from the way we usually see them (e.g., whole fruits or vegetables) to how they exist in the greens powder is a big factor in their shelf life.
The whole ingredients that make up a greens powder are freeze-dried. This process changed the game for nutrition production because it allows the product to be dehydrated without losing any of the nutritional benefits.
But what does that have to do with shelf life? It’s relevant because the way it works is by freezing the product and then very quickly drying it—that dehydrates the product without it ever going through a ‘liquid’ phase. The high water content within the products often determines the shelf life due to the higher chance of microbial growth.
So, because powdered greens go through the freeze-drying process, they have a shelf life of up to 25 years. Not only does that mean you are safe to drink old powdered greens you might find that you bought years ago, but it also means you can bulk buy and plan for the future without worrying about it going off.
Can You Continue To Use Powdered Greens After the Expiration Date?
Firstly, we should distinguish the difference between shelf life and expiration date. You might have seen or used the two interchangeably, but they have two very different meanings. Shelf life is sometimes used with ‘best before’ and is the date before which the product is allowed to be legally sold.
It’s because shelf life indicates the date by which a product is deemed to be at its peak in freshness, nutrition, and taste. Once this date has passed, it should no longer be sold; however, it can still be eaten—it might just not be at its best.
Alternatively, the expiration date is the date by which the product should not be consumed. These dates are only required to be presented on certain food types and should be adhered to. That means you should not consume the product after this date.
So, when it comes to green powders, first, you should check the type of date it has printed on it. If it is a ‘best before’ date, then you should try to consume it by that date. It will still be safe to have it after that; it just might not be as good. However, if the date is an expiration date, you should throw it out.
How To Store Green Powders for Freshness
Powdered Greens Need To Be Refrigerated?
In short, yes. Once you’ve opened your pack of nutritional greens powder, you should store it in the refrigerator for safety and food preservation. But why? What is it about the fridge that is so good for food storage?
To understand that, we need to understand what makes food go off in the first place. That will be one of two factors - microbes and oxidation. Microbes are unwanted bacteria that can grow on food and drink products that feed on the nutrition (just like we want to). The problem occurs once the microbes have grown on the product - if we consume it, there’s a high chance we’ll get ill.
Alternatively, oxidation is a chemical process that changes the makeup of a product, such as colour and flavour, making it both look and taste unpleasant.
How does a fridge help avoid both of these factors? Colder temperatures slow down chemical reactions, which are required for microbes to grow and oxidation to occur.
So, make sure you refrigerate your greens powder to keep it fresh and healthy.
Final Thoughts
Powdered greens are a fantastic product if you are looking to increase your nutrition and ensure you get all your vitamins and minerals in each day. Greens powders are designed with both nutrition and convenience in mind so you can get on the road to being the healthiest version of yourself.
Part of ensuring you stay healthy with your greens powder is paying attention to and adhering to the expiration date on the label and storing your powder in the fridge. To start your health journey, check out Magic Scoop’s Nutritional Greens Powder, which comes in both convenient The Bag and single-use Stick Packs.
