Is Expired Chocolate Still Good?
March 26, 2012
Recently I received a question from a reader wondering if a rather large supply of chocolate, 2 years past expiry, would still be good to use.
It's a good question. And it doesn't really matter the quantity of chocolate. Here's my answer...
The options to use expired chocolate depend on two things.
- Flavor
- Safety
First Consider the Flavor of Expired Chocolate
First, if it is milk chocolate it is probably too late and will taste rancid, like cardboard paper or worse. The dairy milk in there will not last that long and still taste good. The bad flavors will still show through even if you use it in baking or frosting. I would throw it out if it tastes funny. It is still safe to eat, but the off flavor will not be disguised.
If it is dark chocolate, however, you may have some luck. Taste it and it may still be good. Probably the chocolate flavor will be very low in intensity, but still ok. It would be ok to use in baking or frosting, or grate it over ice cream or pastry as decoration. Also, a good idea is to make a syrup or hot fudge. The sweetness will mask any tiny off flavor.
If, however, it doesn't taste good at all, it should not be used. Again, the bad flavor will come through even if baked or cooked.
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Now, What About Safety?
If the chocolate has gone through up and down temperature changes, the chocolate may not be safe to eat. Temperature changes can promote bacterial growth, because if the chocolate gets too hot and melts even just a little, then it cools down right after, condensation forms and this provides a bit of water for bacteria and molds to grow. You may not see it, but it could be there.
If you are confident that the temperature has been stable for the two years or so, then it should be safe to eat especially if you melt it for baking or cook it for syrup.
Chances are the chocolate has "bloomed" which is a gray or white film over the surface. There are two kinds of bloom: fat bloom and sugar bloom. If the bloom is greasy to the touch, then it is just cocoa butter that traveled to the surface over time, and it is safe to eat. It will disappear when you melt the chocolate.
BUT....if the film is powdery, like dust or flour, then it is from sugar bloom. In this case, some melting and cooling took place that caused condensation to form and water to evaporate, leaving sugar exposed. I would not trust the safety of the chocolate if it has evidence of sugar bloom.
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Photo: "weird hershey's bar" by Jelene Morris is licensed under CC BY 2.0 /cropped from original
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Hi! We got Urin Bailey’s Milk Chocolate Best Before Date 7-2019 unopened… Is it still safe to eat? Now is April 2021🥴😩
My Jack Daniels GOLDKENN Swiss Liqueur Chocolates Bar expired on 9 October 2020. I bought it on a Europe trip in December 2019 and I stay in an Asian country. Kept the chocolate in the fridge since touchdown. Is it still safe to consume?
I believe it would be safe to eat. However, the liqueur inside might be crystallized and evaporated since it’s been sitting so long. It probably won’t be what you expect – both in flavor and appearance.
I used some Ghirardelli, Dark chocolate flavored melting wafers that I bought at Christmas time last year. The best used by date is 10/31/2020. They are powdery on the surface. I dipped just a few nougats I made in it and it is streaked with lighter brown after it set. It tastes just fine.
What is going on?
Theresa
Chocolate flavored melting wafers is classified as confectionery coating or candy coating. It is not “pure chocolate”. The powdery surface is called bloom and it happens when the oils and fats used in making the confectionery coating rise to the surface (sometimes due to age or sometimes due to sitting in a warm environment). The wafers are safe to eat even if they have bloom- it’s just not in it’s best condition. Your dipped nougats are streaked in color because there were temperature differences in the coating after you melted it. For example, after melting the wafers and stirring, the coating closest to the edge of the bowl was warmer or colder than the coating at the center of the bowl. After dipping, the coating cooled and dried at different rates depending on the temp of the coating. It would taste just fine, it just lacks the best appearance.
just found an unopened bag of hershey’s miniatures with an expiration date of 3-2017. Is this safe to eat?
Probably. Might not taste very good, though!
I have toblerone Swiss milk chocolate one cartoon but best before21.10.2020 can I eat still? Until when I can eat please tell somebody!
It should be safe to eat but the flavor could be stale (oxidized) due to the milk fat in the milk chocoalte.
I just found 8 boxes / containers of assorted that I had safely stored
I am considering using them for baking. I may just try one to see if it’s good.
I just ate some Hershey kisses I got from my school and they taste absolutely rancid. They looked completely normal and they were just a little hard to bite into, but I feel nauseous now (and I’m a chocoholic that could eat chocolate for hours). Is there any way to get food poisoning from chocolate, and if so, could it happen from chocolate that looks perfectly normal?
Rancid (oxidized) milk chocolate doesn’t taste very good, as you experienced. I have never gotten sick from an oxidized chocolate. I hope you have better tasting chocolate soon!
I Have toblerone bar like in a carton with 5 insides different flavor and it will expired on Dec 15 this year and i will go home on January 2021, is it still safe to consume? Thank You
I have eaten chocolates that are at least two years old. Tastes good and never had an issue.
I have a bunch of chocolates and some of them is already expired.. but not years.. its just months.. like my galaxy chocolates its expiration date was last month april 19,2019.. and the others was just last feb. And december … is this still safe to eat?
I have some chocolate in my house and the date was December 2013… Yeah let’s not eat that…
Haha, i just found a bar dated to 2011… I ate half before realizing when it expired.
I bought a kit Kat Chunky duo today I ate 1 half it I realised it tasted disgusting so I checked the date and it went out of date March 2017 almost 2 years old… now my stomach is killing me and I’ve been sick is it because of the chocolate??
I bought some demets TURTLES minis didn’t notice expiration date until I got home expiration is July 17, 2018 ate they still safe to eat??
Yes, it is most likely safe! I ate one expired 2011 and I’m fine.
I ate a bar of Francois Pralus 100% dark chocolate (Madagascar single origin) bought in 2012 just last week, in 2018. The best before date was 2014 February.
It tasted great (I like bitter chocolates so no problem with it having no dairy), just like a new bar. I had forgotten it in the pantry. I do remember when I bought it, 6 years ago.
No poisoning, nothing. So I don’t think very dark chocolate can ever expire. It can be eaten even years later. There was absolutely no weird or sour flavor.
Milk chocolate can probably go rancid, but not dark chocolates which are either made of 100% cocoa beans or have 80-90% cocoa and 10-20% sugar.
I have a chocolate mousse and its 1 day past the best before date.is it ok?
Hi I bought bark thins-dark chocolate almond w/sea salt I already started eating them but noticed the expiration date says 4/27/17 😳…should I stop eating them? Or am I ok to continue 🤔
Hi, i found some chocolate in my fridge and the pack has never been open before until now. The chocolate has been expired 2 years ago…it taste good …and i am not dead sooo yay :))
I hope my experience may help others
Lol that’s the same way I feel.. I have eaten old chocolate all thou my life. As long as it’s unopened.
And as someone told me a long time ago. Homeless people and others eat old food all the time and they are still walking around. So I say as long as you think it’s ok then eat it..
I have dairy milk silk which expired was manufactured in the year 2017 and expired in the year 2018 .. I am eating it now.. Idk what’s going to happen.. If something happens I’ll let u guys know..
If something did happen, you wouldn’t be able to let us know.
Did something happen??
I guess it did.
I have a chocolate from the UK and it expired last month. It says it made with pistachio in caramel-milk
Hi,i bought a pack of Chocolate that expired 15th of April..can I still eat it? best regards
I have expired cocoa powder, no flavor left so no point eating. I don’t see any mold. What can you do with expired cocoa powder? I bought a lot of it, and feel like it’s not right just to throw in the trash. Add to soil?
I think it would be okay to add to the soil, but keep in mind that natural cocoa powder (cocoa powder NOT treated with alkali, or dutch processed) is slightly acidic with a pH about 5.5 to 5.8.
I bought Sephra Belgian chocolate and it has been boxed in original shipping packaging box and in 4 – 2 lb bags for 2 years. It expired 12/2016, but we opened a bag and it tastes fine. Planning to use in a big chocolate fountain. Is it ok?
I have m&m’s, one’s that got peanuts inside that expired last 2013 but funny thing is it doesn’t have that greasy or powdery texture and it tastes the same. Will i get poisoned if i continue to eat them?
I bought chocolates and the expiration date was past , is it still possible to eat?
I just ate a Snickers bar that I got trick or treating, and it had two white dots on it. I wiped them off then ate it, am I going to get food poisoning, or sick for that matter!
We got hershey milk chocolate bars at trick or treating last night. We ate them. They looked and tasted fine, but I just looked at the date and they expired a year and 11 months ago. Is it ok?
I have this Anthon Berg dark chocolate with genuine spirits in liquid centers… it expired three months ago.
Its hasn’t suffered any temperature changes.
Do you think since is dark chocolate and has alcohol inside, its still safe to eat??
Please let me know.
Thanks,
Ruth
Yes, I do not believe there would be any safety concern eating a dark chocolate with alcohol center that is 3-months past its expiration date. In general, with chocolate, it is safe to eat anytime, even well past an expiration date unless it was somehow contaminated. The greater issue is quality of the chocolate. Even if kept in a good environment, it is possible that the liquid center has crystallized in part or completely. That means that you might not get the exact tasting experience that Anthon Berg intended.
I have snickers chocolate expire on March 16-18, is it still safe to eat?
Date shows expired a month ago, can I eat it?
Hi. I am Gina. I have this one container/bottle of Kirkland’s almonds milk chocolate (the coated kind). It was only this morning that I found out that it expired last April of 2016. It is still safe to eat? Thank you.
As I explained in the post, the options to eat expired chocolate depend on two things…
1. Safety
2. Flavor
Safety: If the chocolate has gone through up and down temperature changes, the chocolate may not be safe to eat. If you are confident that the temperature has been stable for the whole time you’ve had it, then it should be safe.
Flavor: It is a milk chocolate and anything older than 6-8 months and it probably will taste “off”, which means rancid, like cardboard paper or worse. The dairy milk in there will not last that long and still taste good. Also, it has almonds, and almonds also go rancid fast. HOWEVER, you don’t mention if these were in the freezer. If they were frozen, the flavor should still be OK, even with it almost a year old. NOTE: check that the bloom is not sugar bloom. If it is not, then it will be safe to eat. Of course, if the flavor is bad, just get rid of it and buy some fresh – it will be worth it!
I have 100 pcs. of pralins white chocolates which are tightly wrapped in a celophane purchased last December 5, 2016 from factory. Now is already February 3, 2017. I checked it out, and it still looks good.
My question is. . . how long does this kind of branded chocolates lasts? Or how long they give period of expiry date?
Thanks
Jackie Chan
White Chocolates expire the fastest among the three kinds of chocolate (milk, dark, and white) because it contains the most milk fat and milk solids of the three.
As white chocolate ages, it turn more yellow, and the flavor will get rancid. Typically, white chocolate has a shelf life of 1-3 months, depending on the amount of cocoa butter and if it was stored properly. Of course, I’m assuming these pralines are made with cocoa butter. If there are other fats in there like palm kernel oil, then the shelf life is much longer as those fats are more stable due to being saturated.
You have a box of chocolates. Most commercially made boxed chocolates are made months prior to getting them to the stores. Your box is older than your purchase date and could already be past it’s prime. However, tasting it is the only to know! Try one and if it tastes good, enjoy the rest. If not, throw them away.
Hi John,
It may be safe to eat, but I doubt it will taste good. I recommend throwing it out.
Hi, we have chocolates which has best before date of the year 2012, is it still safe to be consumed?
Dear Bryn, greetings. I am from a company in Spore, supplying expired dried stuff as Animal Feed for farms across Msia. I have big supplies of expired unadulterated chocolate (not mixed yet) but these are not favored by livestock. As i have to buy from Manufacturers at a lower price, i cannot dispose whatmore incineration fees will be charged too.
Based on your knowledge, is there any commercial value for expired chocolate (less than 3yr)? We believe in Re-cycling: less wastage = better earth. As of now i have around 80mt not knowing what to do with it. Can u pls enlighten me? Tks very much. Serene teo 65-91122085.
Hi Serene,
Please describe the chocolate a little more. When you say “expired unadulterated chocolate (not mixed yet)” do you mean some form of finished chocolate? Or are you referring to chocolate liquor, cacao nibs, or cacao beans with shells?
Bryn
Hi..
I have Hershey milk chocolate bar and expired last November 2015, will its still be good to eat?
Thank you and Godbless
Hi Marie,
Since it is only a few months past its expiration date, the chocolate is probably fine as long as it has been stored properly.
My suggestions would be to open the package and inspect the chocolate. If it doesn’t look good, throw it away. If it still looks normal, it probably tastes as expected. Try a piece. If you like it, all is well.
Bryn
First, take a look at the best used by date on the box (if there is one). Chocolates have a shelf-life. Milk chocolate, white chocolate and nut clusters have a shorter shelf-life then dark chocolates.
Chocolates can bloom (get a layer of white haze covering them, either from sugar or cocoa butter) and eventually take on a rancid or ‘cardboard’ taste. Chocolates with syrups and caramels can get hard and crystallize over time. These are just some of the effects of aging.
Most of the time out-of-date chocolate may have an unpleasant appearance, but eating it is safe. Even so, I always encourage people to consume chocolate at its best.
Even if the boxes of chocolates haven’t expired, I would open one of them, take a look, and eat a few before you decide to give them away!
hi! i bought some chocolates for a very good price back in february. after valentines day i got like 20 boxes of russell stover truffles and still haven’t eaten them. will it still be ok to give away? i have a lot of people who i’ve told.