Why do cake mixes have experiation dates?

Ok, so I've been on low carb for 10.25 months now and it's going awesome. (-114lbs) and I'm doing some cleaning
I'm not going back to the way i was eating, so I figured I'd continue getting rid of carb stuff.

I have a LOT of dry cake mixes (you know, betty crocker stuff in the store)
most of it expired 5 years ago, which seems odd, because we were eating it even up to last year.

Why does this expire? it's dry mix
Am I missing something?
Should i toss it or give it away? (to friends, not to wasteful food banks)

(Pure anecdotal here) I know I've had old corn-based products and they taste awful. My guess is that for things like dry mixes, it's more to get you to throw it out and get some more, but there could be taste degradation if the ingredients are old (chemical breakdown or somesuch).

The bigger question would be why does bottled water have an expiration date.

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Originally Posted by ray1970

The bigger question would be why does bottled water have an expiration date.

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So you'll keep buying more and keep them in business !!! [facepalm]

The main thing would be that the baking powder or soda in the mix loses effectiveness over time so you could bake it and end up with a brick instead of a cake. I wouldn't worry about it -- the low humidity in Colorado seems to add to shelf-time for things like this. Just don't bank on that cake mix working properly for a party or something -- save it for a treat for your family or to make stuff for the school/church bake sale that won't hurt if you end up throwing it out.

Am i reading that right??? You lost 114lbs?!?!? You really need to tell the rest of us how you pulled that off.

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Originally Posted by Aloha_Shooter

The main thing would be that the baking powder or soda in the mix loses effectiveness over time so you could bake it and end up with a brick instead of a cake. I wouldn't worry about it -- the low humidity in Colorado seems to add to shelf-time for things like this. Just don't bank on that cake mix working properly for a party or something -- save it for a treat for your family or to make stuff for the school/church bake sale that won't hurt if you end up throwing it out.

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Not the same for mac n cheese. spouse opened up a box "she forgot" was in the rotation, exp 05/2009 The cheese almost got her, were it not for our pups, on the job and neutralizing the threat. Some nasty shit expired processed cheese is i tell ya.

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Originally Posted by Robb

Am i reading that right??? You lost 114lbs?!?!? You really need to tell the rest of us how you pulled that off.

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Yeah....screw the expired cake mixes, tell us fat bastards about the weight loss!

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Originally Posted by Robb

Am i reading that right??? You lost 114lbs?!?!? You really need to tell the rest of us how you pulled that off.

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yeah, really, 114 pounds so far. In 10 months and a week. I haven't weighed this little since probably 1997 or so.
And I eat good, no scams, no extra money and programs, real food and for the first time in my life, I"m not hungry all the time

http://www.reddit.com/r/keto

the fear is that mold spores grow in the box....while this can happen it's rare and unlikely