Dried spaghetti doesn't really go bad

Not really. The expiration date on dry pasta is mostly a manufacturer’s best guess for peak quality, not a safety deadline.

Dried spaghetti is nearly immortal. It’s essentially flour and water with almost no moisture—nothing for bacteria or mold to grow on. If you store it in a cool, dry place away from pests, it will last years past that printed date.

Staling happens in bread because of moisture loss and starch retrogradation, but dried spaghetti is already as dry as it gets. The texture change over time is negligible. You might notice a slightly more brittle noodle after a couple years, but it’s not the same as stale crackers or chips.

Cracking is more about humidity cycles than age. If your spaghetti goes through repeated swings between humid and dry air, it can develop stress fractures. That’s a storage problem, not an expiration date problem. A sealed container or the original box in a stable pantry solves it.

Bottom line: If it looks fine, smells fine, has no bugs, cook it. That date is a suggestion, not a rule.