The shelf life of a typical antibiotic can range from 12-60 months. This is a relatively short time, considering that 12 to 60 months is only about 1 to 5 years. Also, once the container of the antibiotics’ original seal is opened, the original expiration date given to that bottle is no longer credible. However, several studies and experiments that have been done have shown that antibiotics may, in fact, have longer shelf lives than listed. This is not tested often because the labels on the bottles usually have a statement telling you to discard of the antibiotics once the expiration date is surpassed. It is not suggested to take antibiotics after their shelf life has been passed. Doctors do not know which antibiotics will have longer shelf lives. The reason for this being that the antibiotics are made up of different ingredients, varied presences of preservatives, and have different temperature fluctuations, light, humidity, and other storage factors. The bottom line is that is not suggested to take expired antibiotics unless it turns into a last resort to treat an infection (Anderson, …show more content…
Most antibiotics occur naturally, but companies need to be able to mass produce them in order to get mass production and profit. In order to do this, they must isolate the correct microorganisms. What this does is fuel the growth of the microorganism. They do this many times, constantly refining it. After they do this, they isolate the final antibiotic product. To try and summarize this without leaving out key elements, they have to do several things before fermentation of the microorganism (Romanowski, 2007).
They must isolate the microorganism, which they receive in a cold storage inside a lab. They put these organisms into agar shake-plates. This makes the microorganism grow rapidly. They are then put into big seed tanks that are designed to give the microorganism the perfect environment to grow. This whole process takes about a day to a day and a half (Romanowski,