Shelf life is not a marketing decision. It is the outcome of stability testing under controlled conditions, and a figure printed without that work behind it is a guess. This matters commercially as well as technically: a shelf life that is too optimistic produces returns, and one that is too conservative wastes stock.
Accelerated versus real-time
Accelerated stability testing holds product at elevated temperature and humidity for a defined period to model longer-term behaviour. It is fast, widely accepted for establishing a provisional shelf life, and what we supply as standard on our formulations.
Real-time stability means storing product under normal conditions for the full claimed shelf life and testing at intervals. It takes exactly as long as the shelf life you want to claim, which cannot be shortened. Some export registrations require it, and if yours does, that is a timeline fact rather than a negotiating position.
What Indian conditions do to products
Transit and storage here are harder on packaging than most specifications assume. Coconut-based oils solidify in a northern January and leak in a southern June. Hygroscopic powders cake if the pack seal is marginal. Effervescent and uncoated tablets are moisture-sensitive in a way that shows up in the monsoon rather than in a lab.
We test pack-plus-product as a system rather than the formulation alone, because a stable formulation in an unsuitable pack is still a return.
Typical shelf lives in our range
Tablets and capsules: 24 months. Churnas and dry powders: 24 months. Herbal juices: 18 months, and 15 for the more sensitive greens. Proteins and meal replacements: 18 months. Drops and concentrates: 24 months. Creams and oils: 24 months. Shilajit resin: 36 months.
These are the figures our stability data supports. Where a client wants a longer claim, the answer is more data or a different pack, not a bigger number on the carton.