[Histonet] Talk to me about shelf life and outdates

[Emily Sours]

We have stains from at least twenty years ago, judging by their
labels--they have no date on them! I always wondered how long neutral red
lasts, but apparently, it lasts a long, long time.
We are not a clincial lab though, we do research.

Emily

"By bitching and bitching and bitching, they could exhaust the drama of
their own horror stories. Grow bored. Only then could they accept a new
story for their lives. Move forward."

-Chuck Palahniuk, "Haunted"


On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 6:51 PM, Elizabeth Chlipala <liz <@t> premierlab.com>wrote:

> Cheryl
>
> We are not a clinical lab, but we are GLP compliant.  This is how we deal
> with dry chemicals and stains.  A lot of times they do not come with an
> expiration date.  If no expiration date/retest date is listed we give them
> an expiration date/retest date of 5 years post receipt.   After that date
> we place them in a special area that is marked - Past Retest Date - Do not
> use until retested.   We have a reagent control SOP that explains all of
> this.  I'm not familiar with the "Good until used" designation.  For retest
> we just run a special stain that contains a solution prepared from the
> chemical and if it stains appropriately we give that chemical a new
> expiration/retest date and just make sure we document the process
> appropriately.  We just initiated this SOP recently so have not yet had to
> perform any retests.   We update our chemical inventory as new chemicals
> are ordered, but once a year we review and check all our chemicals for
> inventory and that we have updated MSDS's available.  I can send a pdf of
> our reagent control SOP if you would like it.  If you are striving to be a
> GLP compliant lab and are heading to NSH convention this year I'll be
> giving a workshop on GLP compliance in the histology lab with our Facility
> Quality Assurance Manager.
>
> Liz
>
> Elizabeth A. Chlipala, BS, HTL(ASCP)QIHC
> Laboratory Manager
> Premier Laboratory, LLC
> PO Box 18592
> Boulder, CO 80308
> Work (303) 682-3949
> Fax (303) 682-9060
> Cell (303) 881-0763
> liz <@t> premierlab.com
> www.premierlab.com
>
> Ship to address:
>
> 1567 Skyway Drive, Unit E
> Longmont, CO 80504
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:
> histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Cheryl
> Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2013 4:25 PM
> To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
> Subject: [Histonet] Talk to me about shelf life and outdates
>
> We're prepping for an inspection and I have a small amount of older
> powdered dyes and substances we can't get any more.    They're dated 'Good
> until used'.
>
> Would someone elaborate on how we came to have outdates on things that
> never had them before, and how those outdates are determined?
>
> Is there a procedure or policy you might share so we can keep our old but
> good items in service until we run out rather than in 12 months (EEEK!!!)
>
> Many thanks!
>
> Cheryl
>
>
> Cheryl Kerry, HT(ASCP)
> Full Staff Inc.
> Staffing the AP Lab by helping one GREAT Tech at a time.
> 281.852.9457 Office
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