Using the post expirator plugin see useful plugins

function my_custom_posts_query( $query, $args ){
	if( $args['query'] == 'expires_first' ){
		$query = array(
			'cat' => 1,
             'order' => 'ASC', 
             'meta_key' => '_expiration-date', 
             'orderby' => 'meta_value'
        );
		if(is_front_page())//optional
			$query['posts_per_page'] = 5;
	}
	return $query;
}
add_filter( 'themeblvd_posts_args', 'my_custom_posts_query', 10, 2 );

For woo products with variable category
query like so;
query=”expires_first|catid=248″

function jma_expire_products_query( $query, $args ){
    if (0 === strpos($args['query'], 'expires_first')){
        $exploded = explode('|', $args['query']);
        $query = array(
            'post_type' => 'product',
            'tax_query' => array(
                array(
                    'taxonomy' => 'product_cat',
                    'field'    => 'id',
                    'terms'    => str_replace('catid=', '', $exploded[1]),
                ),
            ),
            'order' => 'ASC',
            'meta_key' => '_expiration-date',
            'orderby' => 'meta_value'
        );
    }
    return $query;
}
add_filter( 'themeblvd_posts_args', 'jma_expire_products_query', 10, 2 );

using pre_get_posts:

function date_search_filter($query)
 {
     if (! is_admin() && $query->is_main_query()&& $query->query_vars['category_name'] == 'events') {
         $query->set('meta_key', '_expiration-date');
         $query->set('orderby', array('meta_value' => 'ASC'));
     }
 }
 add_action('pre_get_posts', 'date_search_filter');