Can BCAA or Glumatine go 'bad'?

[gatito]

I had an accident last year and was unable to workout or do much of anything for quite a long time. After a year off I got back into weight lifting again. Now I am wondering if the supplements I had bought back in the spring of 2006 are OK to consume. Specificially I am wondering if BCAA or Glutamine go bad. I took some creatine with BCAA a few days ago and later got diarrhea. Could be a coincidence, I thought. I tried creatine on its own and was fine. I tried glutamine and felt OK. I tried BCAA again... and once again got diarrhea. Seems like pretty strong evidene that it might be bad. But what about other supplements? If BCAA goes bad after sitting unrefridgerated on a shelf for a year, what about glutamine (since it is also an amino acid). Should I throw everything out (quite expensive)?

Thanks in advance,

Craig

[Dr. D]

Check the expiration dates on the containers. Sometimes taking excessive Glutamine, from my experience, will cause diarrhea. It could be possible with the BCAA.

[gatito]

Check the expiration dates on the containers.

The BCAA has a "use by" date of 04/07, so that is passed. The glutamine has an "exp" date of 02/08. Going only by those numbers the BCAA should be disposed of. But I still don't know if these supplements go bad after a awhile - ie. become rotten, get mold, or bacteria or whatever.

With some products a 'use by' or 'best before' date refers to freshness, with others it refers to how long the product will stay eatable. If I can open up a jar of salsa that has an expiration date of 2008 on the jar I can't leave it in my fridge and still have it be eatable next Christmas. But lots of other foods seem to last forever. When I was a kid we had a cottage we stayed at for a couple weeks a year. There were jars of peanut butter or packages of peanuts etc which might have been 3 years old which, although possibly stale were certainly still eatable later on. Up until now I had kind of assumed that powdered supplements were like herbs and spices and would last on the shelf however long it took until they were used up. But now I am wondering if will go bad after a certain while.

[Necrosis]

ive sold bcaa's protein, etc all a year or two past the date. only thing that happens is settling and taste issues, no one has ever gotten sick. it should be fine imo.