Why do some non-refrigerated foods (cans, bottles, jars, etc) have clearly labelled “best by” or “expiration” dates, while some just have a cryptic non-human readable code. I’m cleaning out my cupboards, and find this infuriating. Is there a reason so many manufacturers hide this useful information in code? Some things I just found in my cupboard that don’t look too old (with no other dates):
Trader Joe’s Organic Blue Agave Nectar
Code:
09308DH2
00:25:56
Those codes aren’t “best by” dates, really…they’re manufacturing codes. They indicate where the item was made (including potentially which plant, and on which line), as well as, yes, the date and time when it was packaged. Those codes aren’t really meant to be directly useful to the consumer, though they may come into play if you contact the manufacturer with a complaint (i.e., you send them an e-mail to say, “this tastes off”, and they will ask for those codes so that they can attempt to figure out what went wrong), or if there’s a product recall.
In the cases of your products, one of two things has probably happened:
The manufacturer hasn’t done testing to determine when a “best by” date would be (AFAIK, this is not mandatory, and some smaller manufacturers may not take the time and expense to do this kind of testing). Just so you know, “best by” dates usually aren’t “this product will turn toxic after this date”; they’re the date to which the manufacturer expects (given normal storage conditions) the product will still retain its flavor, texture, etc.
All the same, it would be useful to the consumer to be able to determine when the product was manufactured, so that they can use their best judgement. If the above two items were manufactured in the 1980’s I would throw them away. If the were manufactured in the 2000’s I would probably keep them. You’d think it could even be a liability that the consumer has no way of determining how old the product is…
I don’t disagree with you. It may also be that the products in question may go “bad” from the standpoint of not tasting good anymore, but are unlikely to become dangerous for human consumption in any sort of reasonable time frame. So, the “liability” issue may really be minimal.
About 20 years ago, on a Canadian TV show, I heard somebody mention that expiration dates were mandatory only for products that have a shelf life under N days. (I don’t quite remember if it was N=30 or N=60.)
Even if this rule still holds today, it may be to the advantage of the manufacturer to label the product with an expiration date to encourage sales.
Manufacturers who are not forced to affix an expiration date, and who see no “sales” reason to do so, may still brand their products with an obscure code so they can track a bad batch for recall purposes.
Processed foods need lot numbers for recalls, if necessary. If you’re interested, I can find the section of the Code of Federal Regulations for you.
If you really just want some idea of how old the food is, you should be get the information from the company - find the website, go to contact us, and give them all the strings of numbers and letter including where they are on the label, that’s very important.
Or, you could give everything to a homeless shelter (they have experience with older food) and write the year of purchase on the label in the future.
As others have pointed out, many products don’t have expiration dates. The codes are often some combination of manufacturing date / facility code / sub-code (production line or similar). This assists in identifying products in the event of a recall and so forth.
Date codes can be month / day / year (not necessarily in that order, and possibly omitting day), ordinal dates (day-of-year), or more obscure things. As an example of obscure, many old Soviet date codes are the year as a 2-digit number and the month in roman numerals (really!). Some manufacturers use a letter to indicate month (January=A, etc.).
Sometimes manufacturers explain their code(s) on their web site. For example, B&G Foods.
Sometimes it is a secret. For example, I have a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi handy, with the code “1857PY10121” and an expiration date of “JAN 09 12”. That indicates it was bottled at 6:57 PM in the Piscataway, NJ plant on October 12, 2011. Piscataway doesn’t use a production line sub-code, while (for example) Urbana does. By the way, that means that Pepsi feels that the shelf life of that bottle is 90 days.
In contrast, the lot codes on Sunkist (at least in the NYC area - Sunkist is bottled by different groups depending on location) are a bit more cryptic. The first line reads “11 312 1”. That means it was bottled on the 312th day of 2011, which happens to be in November (month 11). That works out to November 8th, thanks to this handy calculator (from NASA, of all places). That’s handy to know, as NYC-area Sunkist doesn’t have a “best before” date on the bottle. In case you’re wondering why the month is duplicated in clear code on the bottle, it is so that stale stock could be (note that I didn’t say “is”) identified.
In the UK I don’t think there are any food products on the shelves without a “best before” or “use by” date, in addition to the cryptic manufacturing codes. I’m pretty sure it’s a legal requirement. Even things like rock salt.
Of course, “best before” dates are very different from “use by” dates. “Use by” dates are put on perishable food that is likely to go bad fairly rapidly.
I’d happily eat a tin of food saying “best before JUL 2009”, but I’d probably chuck out a pack of ham saying “use by 21 NOV 2011”…