For something like vaseline, they just arbitrarily decide to make it expire a few years out. The purpose of having a date is mostly because some people keep stuff for thirty years or more. Even then it's probably still good. But who knows whether something weird got mixed into it or whether that old plastic tub is now a banned substance.

i don't tell my wife not to throw something away after expiration. she is hell on canned goods. i'.m willing to inspect the can and smell the contents before i throw it away.

btw : expired canned goods are accepted at the food bank or homeless shelter and they use them much faster than a typical family.

If you look closely you will see a "best by" date, which is not the same thing.

Eta:

https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/how-to-tell-whether-expired-food-is-safe-to-eat/

next year, just don't toss it. It is petroleum jelly].,

[link:https://www.bobvila.com/slideshow/14-unusual-uses-for-vaseline-50762|]

move it from the bathroom to the garage.

If it's what it claims to be.

I have noticed that if it sits around for a long time it seems to form a kind of skin. Remove it; what's underneath should be fine.

I have some that was already at least decade old when our kid was born 15 years ago. Still use it. Didn't even think that it might have an expiration date.

(Now, whether it's really as safe as billed, dunno.)

it turns into a platter of steak and eggs.

I think, though, that as consumers we just need to differentiate between one kind of product and another. Petroleum jelly is unlikely to go bad unless there is some introduced contamination, like sticking dirty hands in the jar and then using it for, um, personal care time and again. So I'm fussy about that kind of thing. As for the discolored plastic jar I found in the back of the cupboard with the peeling label from a now-defunct drugstore chain -- that one got demoted to the garage just on general principles.

I know there is someplace online where you can check "real" expirations for food and medicine. My sister, because of jobs she has done, is good at ferreting that kind of thing out. She shared with me that her doc prescribed a certain medicated cream and her insurance company wanted $75 co-pay a tube for it -- really, and I had gotten the damn thing for free with my insurance, and so kept refilling it for months after I stopped using it. Years ago. So I gave her the info and told her I'd be only too happy to send it along if she could check the dates on her own. She did and I did, and saved her about $500.

Normally I toss all unused prescribed meds every couple of years, but if I had her skillset I would be more selective.

It. Is. Fucking. Salt!

Vaseline no more. Met its maker. Deceased. Pushing daisies. Bit the dust. Bought the Vaseline farm. Dead as a doornail.

Worked quite nicely and seemed fresh as a daisy for the intended purpose of keeping comfortable. Put it back in dark corner of cabinet for next procedure 5 years from now.

Vaseline is the kind of thing you can encase something in to preserve it forever, to seal the air out, sort of like the way amber has preserved fossils for eons.