The iHealth COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test home kits, which were the brand sent out by the US government when they were doing that sort of thing, have an FDA approved expiration date extension.
I had at least five two-pack iHealth kits sitting around, all beyond the box-listed expiration date. Everything I read said that as long as the control line shows up, the test is valid. But, if I'm deeply relying on something to be accurate, I'm hesitant to believe the Internet at Large over the expiration date on a box. So, we grabbed a couple of new kits from nearby pharmacies to be certain.
In looking into something else unrelated, I stumbled onto this iHealth news release. It turns out, every three months, iHealth has been applying for a 3-month extension, as they prove their kit solutions to be table and reliable beyond the initial date, and so far, three times, the FDA has approved this extension. They intend to continue to apply as it makes sense, and the new shelf-lives will apply to both existing and newly produced test kits.
From the few times I've had to look up purchasing home test kits, iHealth is the least expensive option available, which may explain them being used so widely as free test kits. Regardless, I felt a lot less bad about requesting the full number of free kits I was allowed when I found out they were not actually expired.
If you have expired iHealth rapid test kits sitting around and were concerned about using them, follow this link. You can put in the lot number from the box, and it will return the latest expiration date. Then you can confidently use your iHealth test knowing the results are going to be accurate and reliable.