Decoding Freshness Codes ?

[West Coast Vend LLC]

There are a few candy brands that clearly state their expiration dates on their products. One of them is Hershey's. They stamp the "Best Before" date on each candy bar they sell. This really makes it easy to check products in my vending machines.

M&M Mars is more difficult to read and needs some decoding. They may have a code like 823YLCRZ790. The only numbers/letters that are important are the first 3. In the code 823. 8 is the year 2008, 23 is read together and is the 23 week of the year, so it would be the 3 week of June. My confusion comes with this type of coding because its the date the product is manufactured, not the stale date. Does anyone know how long the product lasts?

There are also codes on other products that need decoding. Could we start a list of manufacturers and id their hidden codes?

Thanks to all that contribute to this post.

Gary

[tedk]

Gary:

Here is some information I have accumulated.

Chrisite Cookies: Use a straight forward Best Before date. Their cookies have a six month shelf life.

Cadbury: 12 month shelf life. They use a 10 digit code. The last two numbers indicate the year and month. It indicates the Best Before date.For information call 1-866-782-3267

Hershey: Use a Best Before date as well. Their code is a two line code. The second line consists of a number which indicates the year and a letter which represents the month. IE 9F means 2009, June. For information call 1-800-468-1714

Nestle: Use Manufacturing Date Shelf life 12 months. They have two styles of code. In their numeric code 52850640 5=year, 285 = day, ie Oct 12 2005 Their alpha-numeric code would be 2121CN. 2 = year, 121 = day ie May 1st

Master Foods USA (Mars, Snickers) use Manufacturing Date. The first number = year, the second and third = the week .They also use a numeric best before like 041206. 04 = the week, 12 = the month, and 06 = the year. Another numeric code they use for Best Before is a simple 12/2006

This is information I got about two years ago. I haven't noticed any changes so I think it is still current. The best way to check if you are having trouble is call the customer service department. They are all very helpful. I write this in the front of my Day Timer for reference in case I run into something I'm not sure about.

I hope this helps.

Ted

 

[West Coast Vend LLC]

That's it Ted! That's the kind of information I am looking for. You got my vote on this one.

Since the code on the Masters Foods USA is a manufacture date, do you know how long the shelf life is?

Thanks again for all this great information.

Gary

[tedk]

Chocolate bars are 12 months.

Ted

[caserri]

This doesn't help to determine how long a product is good for, but here is some interesting background information about product dating from the USDA website.

Steve

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Food_Product_Dating/index.asp