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Edibles are a great way to take medical marijuana for people just starting. Even though smoking weed can be scary, edibles give you all the good cannabinoids without the harsh smoke or the need for accessories. You may want to know if edibles go bad before you buy them. How does THC change over time, and can the potency of edibles go away?
This post will briefly discuss how to maintain the strength of your edibles, determine if your edibles have gone wrong, and what would happen if you took a chance and ate those stale weed gummies from the back of your refrigerator.
Even though cannabis-infused edibles are expensive and exciting, it’s easy to forget they’re still food. They still have the same limits on bacteria growth, mold growth, and going bad as foods that don’t have cannabis in them. Cookies go stale, oil can become rancid, and food will go wrong.
For a long shelf life, edibles need the same preservatives as processed foods. After all, they still follow the same rules about food safety. Even though cannabis has antimicrobial and antibacterial properties, this doesn’t change much about the other ingredients or how long they last.
Since marijuana is now legal and regulated, its products have more sell-by, best-by, and expiration dates. Just like at the grocery store, these can tell you when a product might start to taste funny or when it might make you sick.
Cannabinoids need fats like oil and butter to get into your body better when you eat them. Some fats, however, can last longer, while foods made with dairy or eggs will go bad over time. When food is exposed to water, mold can grow on it.
If you are still trying to determine when an edible will go bad, look at the date on the non-cannabis version or the natural shelf life of the ingredients.
If you want to stock up on edibles, you should also know that they can lose their potency over time. CBD doesn’t suddenly become poisonous, but THC can lose some of its psychoactive effects over time. This is why you bought those magic brownies or weed gummies in the first place.
You can take cannabis-infused gummies and hard candies at any time. Sugar, gelatin, and water are used to make gummies. Even gummies made with beeswax could last long since beeswax doesn’t usually “go bad.”
Individually wrapped candies also have a longer shelf life because they aren’t exposed to water or germs, which can cause mold and bacteria to grow.
Most gummies don’t go wrong, but mold can still grow. Keep an eye out for changes in color, graininess, dryness, and mildew.
Gummies candies can last long because they are made from water, sugar, and gelatin. Different candies have different recipes, which can change when they go wrong.
The shelf life of classic gummy sweets ranges from six months to a year or even longer. Cannabis products are usually kept in airtight containers, so if you keep your edible gummies in a cool, dark place, they could last much longer.
When you open a package of gummies, you expose them to oxygen and bacteria, making them go bad faster than if they had never been opened. Remember that when you open packages and touch unopened candy with your hand, you expose it to microbes that can make it go bad faster.
Milk and eggs are used to make edible cookies, which makes them much more likely to go wrong. Cookies that have just been baked only last about three days before they get moldy or make you sick.
Preservatives can make this time last longer, and most foods have them. It’s best to go by the “best by” date on the package of cannabis cookies to avoid getting sick.
THC degrades and has a shelf life, so that edibles may lose their potency over time. About a year is how long it takes for THC to break down enough to lose its effects, but sometimes it can break down even faster. Cannabinoids can last for up to 2 years if they are correctly stored. But THC has a lot of enemies that can speed up how it breaks down.
Oxygen is the worst thing for THC because it is more likely to turn into cannabinol (CBN). When THC turns into CBN, it loses some of its psychoactive effects, but CBN can still make you feel a little happy or calm.
The speed at which your edibles lose their potency is also sped up by heat and light. Keep food in a cool, dark, and dry place. Please keep them in their original packaging as much as possible and only open the package if you plan to eat the contents within the next three to six months.
If you want to keep your THC edibles for a long time, you can freeze them to keep their potency and keep them from going rancid. By freezing food, heat, light, and oxygen won’t be able to get to it.
Cannabinoids do not lose potency when cannabis oil or fat is frozen, as they do when cannabis flower is frozen. Before the cannabinoids start to break down, other ingredients will probably do so. If you freeze food, the only problem might be how it tastes.
After all, if you paid good money for tasty food, you might not want to ruin its taste or texture.
Consider freezing cookies and other baked foods because their porous texture makes them more likely to be exposed to oxygen and their shelf life is shorter than other foods.
But when it comes to drinks, candies, and other unique foods, you should use your best judgment to figure out how freezing them might change how they taste.
You can eat edibles that have passed their expiration date. Cannabinoids don’t get dangerous, and you won’t die from them. But you could get sick, and the bigger question is whether they will get you high.
It’s best to smell edibles that have sugar in them. After all, candy can last a long time, and you can only tell if it has mold or pathogens by how it tastes or smells.
Depending on how long you’ve had the edible, you might eat something that makes you sick or get a mild, relaxing high from the CBN. Regarding edible expiration, food safety is essential, so it’s best to use your best judgment and throw out any food that smells or tastes bad.
It is not harmful to consume stale gummies. Because they last so long, you may only lose some of their texture or taste. There’s also a chance that the THC has broken down, and you won’t get as high, or you might not get high at all.
You could get mold, fungus, or bacteria, so keep that in mind, but you would know your chances after the first bite.
Edibles are becoming more and more popular. Even though they have cannabinoids, they are still foods, and you should treat them as such to avoid getting food poisoning. Look at the dates on the packages and remember when you bought them.
THC goes right, but it can change over time, so it may not be worth the risk of storing edibles that may lose their effectiveness.
Before you spend money on edibles, apply for a medical marijuana card online so you can enjoy your right to medical marijuana.
Online Medical Card
2001 East 1st St. Suite 102.
Santa Ana, CA 92705
Mon-Sun: 7:00 AM – 10:00 PM
(13 hours/day – 7 days/week)
