Most of us have come across some old packets of cigarettes containing one or two sticks left inside the cartoon. We often wonder if they have expired, making them extra harmful to smokers.
Cigarettes generally don’t come with expiring dates from the manufacturers; this most times keeps us thinking. According to the World health organization, they recommend cigarettes packaging shouldn’t have an expiring date on it. It was initialized to ensure that the product is safe to smoke for the consumers even though there isn’t an expiration date.
Smoking old cigarettes do not have any bad effects because it is still safe to smoke. However, we can’t compare when you bought something new to when you have an old one in your stocks. Both are likely not the same. Meanwhile, this might be due to the time spent after it has been bought and the exposure outside. It greatly affects the flavor and freshness the cigarettes had once before.
Although we might not be aware of the possible risks of smoking, even if it is safe for smoking, an expiration date has no effect, and it isn’t still being deployed – safe for smoking, but there are inherent risks that might affect our health.
Do Cigarettes go bad?
Unfortunately, even though cigarettes don’t expire, they do go bad to an extent – losing their freshness and becoming extremely stale. What caused this? Cigarettes are mostly exposed to air; the moisture evaporates when exposed to air. It evaporates from the resin and oil that is being used during manufacturing.
The change in moisture can also affect how your cigarette wrapper burns well; it either burns steadily or quickly. Immediately after the pack of cigarettes is unsealed, the cigarettes lose their moisture and gradually become stale. The pleasant taste it has when it is new would be lost once the seal is cut open, which might taste bad if it was a methanol cigarette.
A little advantage of it is that most unsealed commercial cigarettes can last up to two days, which is quite interesting; it doesn’t become stale within a short period.
Is it possible to know when it becomes stale?
There are various ways to know if the cigarette has become stale. Unfortunately, one of the ways is to smoke one cigarette and check out for some difficulty in airflow. It, however, depends if you want to risk it by knowing if it is bad possibly.
Still don’t want to risk it by smoking it by yourself? other ways of knowing – Either you check for signs of staleness or roll out a piece of cigarette in between your hands and see if the content inside will fall. Once noticed, it might be a sign of staleness.
Another way of knowing is checking if the cigarette still has its pleasant smell and freshness. There is a high probability there might be an unpleasant smell after it passes its time frame – a maximum of two days. Check out for freshness that it might have before, also check for smell if it is dull or plain. Possibly noticed, possibly your cigarette has likely expired.
How to know the age of a pack of cigarette
The World Health Organization recommends that the tobacco manufacturers don’t add an expiring date on their packs of cigarettes when being produced. This possibly makes consumers believe it is still safe to smoke even though it is old.
There are times we would leave just a pack of cigarettes for some months or probably years, which keeps us wondering if this pack of cigarettes has expired. Possibly you won’t still know if it has also become stale before you even open them.
We will look at techniques to ensure you can get the freshest pack of cigarettes. One of the techniques is what we usually see on the pack, but we don’t know what it means. They contain internal codes which are used to label the packs of cigarettes. However, the internal codes are random numbers and letters which tell important details about the pack of cigarettes.
These codes – random numbers and letters are used to tell us when it was produced and packaged and what kind of additives were used to produce it; interesting. Undoubtedly, this will give a clue on what particular age is the pack of cigarettes.
Most companies use the “Julian Date code,” which contains a six or seven-digit code. The first three digits code of either the seven codes or six codes implies that it was produced on a certain day, e.g., 144 – means that the pack was produced on May 24th on the 144th day of the year.
They are also followed by two digits representing the year it was produced, e.g., 20 – produced in 2020. Although there might be more than five numbers, they are referred to as shifts they were made on – they don’t necessarily affect the age of the cigarette pack.
Thoughtful reasons have been placed out so you could easily determine if a cigarette pack had expired. Unlike other perishable goods, cigarettes don’t expire or get stale quickly like them. You could know the age of the cigarette pack by knowing when it was produced and manufactured.
