How should date codes be interpreted? (2024)

FAQs

How to interpret date code? ›

The first two numbers stand for the year, while the last three numbers represent the day of the year. For example, if the code was 11322, you would know that the food was manufactured on the 322 day of 2011, or November 22nd, 2011.

What is the standard expiration date format for foods? The standard format is MMDDYY, where “MM” refers to the month, “DD” refers to the date, and “YY” refers to the year. So if a product says 101525, it means that the product expires on October 15, 2025. Is it safe to buy food on its expiration date?

The date code usually is in either of two formats: YYWW or WWYY, where WW stands for the week number of the year (Not the month, seems strange, doesn't it?), and where YY stands for the last two digits of the year.

A "Best if Used By/Before" date indicates when a product will be of best flavor or quality. It is not a purchase or safety date. A "Sell-By" date tells the store how long to display the product for sale for inventory management. It is not a safety date.

Find a particular thing and trace the action backward

Find out those specific lines. So, to read code better, move a step backward from there. Figure out the way to place such information into the file. Move another step back and then figure out where the information is coming from.

Closed or coded dates are packing numbers used by the manufacturer. They might appear on shelf-stable products such as cans and boxes of food.

Dates in American English

In written American English, the month of the date comes before the day and year. For example, Independence Day in the USA is on July 4th each year. In the year 2000 the date was 4/7/2000 in British English.

The date code format shall be a four-digit number. The first two digits being the last two digits of the calendar year and the last two digits being the week of the year. This is considered the YYWW format.

What is the standard date code? ›

It is represented as "YYYY-DDD" (or YYYYDDD), where [YYYY] indicates a year and [DDD] is the "day of year", from 001 through 365 (366 in leap years).

The United States is one of the few countries that use “mm-dd-yyyy” as their date format–which is very very unique! The day is written first and the year last in most countries (dd-mm-yyyy) and some nations, such as Iran, Korea, and China, write the year first and the day last (yyyy-mm-dd).

If the code you're reading is comprised of 6 digits, it most likely is a month-day-year code. Read these codes as MMDDYY, where “MM” refers to the month, “DD” refers to the date, and “YY” refers to the year. This is one of the more common codes that you'll see on food items.

These codes have two letters and four digits. The letters are the factor location. The first and third numbers are the week of the year it was manufactured, and the second and fourth numbers are the year.

The international standard recommends writing the date as year, then month, then the day: YYYY-MM-DD. So if both Australians and Americans used this, they would both write the date as 2019-02-03. Writing the date this way avoids confusion by placing the year first. Much of Asia uses this form when writing the date.

The United States has a rather unique way of writing the date that is imitated in very few other countries (although Canada and Belize do also use the form). In America, the date is formally written in month/day/year form. Thus, “January 1, 2011” is widely considered to be correct.

The first two digits are the last numbers of the year and the three digits after the hyphen are the day of that year. So, for instance, a Julian date of 21-001 represents the first day of the year 2021, or January 1, 2021, while a Julian date of 22-165 represents the 165^th day of the year 2022 or June 14, 2022.

The 1st three numbers of your serial number will always provide your manufacture date. The 1st number is the YEAR of manufacture; the 2nd & 3rd numbers indicate the MONTH of manufacture. Please see the detailed explanation and examples provided below.