# Buy before May 25 2017!!?!?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 22, 2001, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buy-before-may-25-2017/73393 "2001-07-22T03:21:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2001, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buy-before-may-25-2017/73393/1 "2001-07-22T03:21:12Z")
I was looking for something to eat today asthe cupboads were kind of bare and I found some peanut butter. I wondered how old it was so I looked for some sort of freshness date and it reads Buy before May 2501r3 2017 2017? This stuff lasts till 2017?!?! I think I need to go lie down as this makes my head spin. ---
**Author:** ![mblackwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@mblackwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mblackwell)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2001, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buy-before-may-25-2017/73393/2 "2001-07-22T03:52:55Z")
> [@](#): > > Peanut Butter (opened) - 2-3 months Refrigeration prolongs storage time > Peanut Butter (unopened) - 6-24 months Refrigeration prolongs storage time > Peanut Butter (Jif), Proctor & Gamble - 24 months 1-800-543-7276 > Peanut Butter, Jiffy - 24 months > Peanut Butter, Skippy - 24 months > Peanuts – 24-36 months [http://www.nursehealer.com/ShelfLife.htm](http://www.nursehealer.com/ShelfLife.htm) Maybe its a code or misprint, or maybe it has a ton of preservatives. What brand is it? ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2001, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buy-before-may-25-2017/73393/3 "2001-07-22T04:26:38Z")
How about this interpretation: May 2501r3 2017 = May 25, 2001 + some production code jazz Sounds more likely to me. ---
**Author:** ![Jeannie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e480ec/32.png) [@Jeannie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeannie)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2001, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buy-before-may-25-2017/73393/4 "2001-07-22T04:45:30Z")
That reminds me of a bottle of soda I opened recently. On the cap, it had this expiration date: JUL3001 I took this to mean that the soda would expire in July of 3001. Then I realized that it was meant to say JUL 30 01, but they had left out the spaces. I thought it was mildly amusing that a food item would expire in 1,000 years. Okay, maybe you had to be there. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2001, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buy-before-may-25-2017/73393/5 "2001-07-22T07:27:42Z")
Peanut butter was reverse engineered from alien technology by George Washington Carver. It has a half-life of 16 years, whereupon it decays into tofu, another legume product. I don’t trust peanut butter. I’m not so sure about quocamole, either. -Beeblebrox “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.” ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2001, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buy-before-may-25-2017/73393/6 "2001-07-22T07:56:12Z")
And to think I was frightened by Lactaid’s mere five month shelf life… ---
**Author:** ![Akatsukami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea666f/32.png) [@Akatsukami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akatsukami)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2001, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buy-before-may-25-2017/73393/7 "2001-07-22T16:17:23Z")
As the Perfect Master noted in [How do they get the Ms on M&Ms](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_112.html), not everything that looks like a straightforward expiration date _is_ a straightforward expiration date. Interpreting it as such _can_ be pretty amusing, though. ---
**Author:** ![Totoro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Totoro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Totoro)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2001, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buy-before-may-25-2017/73393/8 "2001-07-22T16:27:09Z")
[mini-hijack] July 19, I went to store 24 to get a soda. I bought a two-liter of wild cherry pepsi. I drank about a liter of it that night. It tasted kinda nasty, but I drank it. The next day I drank about a 1/2 liter of it, at which point i noticed the expiration date. It had expired two weeks earlier, and was giving me heartburn. [/mini-hijack] ---
**Author:** ![sk8rixtx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@sk8rixtx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sk8rixtx)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2001, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buy-before-may-25-2017/73393/9 "2001-07-22T20:11:27Z")
2017 could be a PLU(Price Look Up) number. May 2501r3 2017 The underlined part is what you should look at. 2501 meaning the 25th of the month stated year 2001. ---
**Author:** ![Tommy\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Tommy\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tommy_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2001, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buy-before-may-25-2017/73393/10 "2001-07-22T22:02:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Beeblebrox \* > \*\*Peanut butter was reverse engineered from alien technology by George Washington Carver. > \*\* From Dr. Shabaz K. Martin on the _Black History Minute_ “Dr. Carver died pennyless and insane trying to play a record with a peanut.” ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2001, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buy-before-may-25-2017/73393/11 "2001-07-22T22:15:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gekiganger \* > \*\*2017 could be a PLU(Price Look Up) number. > > May 2501r3 2017 The underlined part is what you should look at. 2501 meaning the 25th of the month stated year 2001. \*\* So I just ate some bad peanutbutter? Yikes! ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2001, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buy-before-may-25-2017/73393/12 "2001-07-22T23:12:23Z")
I think deodorant is made by aliens, too. It never seems to run out. How do they get all that in there? I wish everything could last as long as deodorant. ---
**Author:** ![Cleophus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Cleophus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleophus)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2001, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buy-before-may-25-2017/73393/13 "2001-07-23T03:26:09Z")
Supposedly the rations issued to the US Armed Forces have a shelf life of over 50 years. The can of roast beef hash I have in my hand doesn’t have an expiration date. ---
**Author:** ![Borborygmi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/borborygmi/32/217_2.png) [@Borborygmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Borborygmi)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2001, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buy-before-may-25-2017/73393/14 "2001-07-23T11:45:23Z")
**Zebra** , I have some BeechNut Stage 1 baby food which expires on February 30, 2003. We could get together and make some interesting sandwiches. ---
**Author:** ![mrblue92](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@mrblue92](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrblue92)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2001, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buy-before-may-25-2017/73393/15 "2001-07-23T13:04:14Z")
Unless you’ve had that particular jar for a long time, May 25, 2001 could be the “born on” date. (i.e. the date it was packaged) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2001, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buy-before-may-25-2017/73393/16 "2001-07-23T13:40:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jeannie \* > \*\*That reminds me of a bottle of soda I opened recently. On the cap, it had this expiration date: JUL3001 > > I took this to mean that the soda would expire in July of 3001. Then I realized that it was meant to say JUL 30 01, but they had left out the spaces. I thought it was mildly amusing that a food item would expire in 1,000 years. > > Okay, maybe you had to be there. \*\* I had a couple bottles of Frappaccino (sp?) with the same problem. The guy in the next cubicle and I were both mildly amused. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2001, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buy-before-may-25-2017/73393/17 "2001-07-24T13:33:52Z")
A bottle of apple juice in my fridge, on the other hand, is BEST BY MAY1202. Wow, it’s contemporaneous with the Crusades! Call the Museum of Natural History.