Eli5: How come hand sanitizer has an expiration date? What exactly happens once it goes past it?

Question

Eli5: How come hand sanitizer has an expiration date? What exactly happens once it goes past it?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

I work in an fda regulated device industry. Fda requires some data on shelf life or usable life as a regular question as part of the patient advocacy for safety and effectiveness. Even products we thought have no practical shelf life (50 years) we had to list one.

For new products that haven’t been around for real time aging tests they will accept accelerated aging but then they expect real time results later.